For almost two decades, the Spanos family and the Chargers Community Foundation have been providing funds to educational institutions throughout San Diego County. This passion for our county’s schools led to the creation of the Chargers Champions program in February of 2000.  

Since that time, Chargers Champions has provided more than $5 million to assist schools, teachers and students. Each year the Chargers Champions School Grant Program allows public and private schools within San Diego County to apply for badly-needed funding for physical fitness, nutrition or athletic programs on their campuses.

Since the beginning of the School Grant Program, more than 125 schools have received funding for various projects such as outdoor fitness trails, weight rooms, running tracks or even Sparks equipment.

Through the Chargers Champions School Grant Program, the Spanos family and the San Diego Chargers are committed to improving the health and well-being of our children, regardless of where they reside.

Chargers Champions Grant Program

The Chargers Champions School Grant program was created to assist San Diego County schools with meeting some of the basic physical fitness, nutrition and athletic needs of their students.

The program annually provides selected schools with grants of up to $75,000 for high schools; up to $40,000 for middle schools and up to $30,000 for elementary schools.

Application Process

The Chargers Champions School Grant program is open to any public or private school in San Diego County. Applications must include all requested information and must be submitted by the deadline to be considered.

Information describing the application process and how to obtain additional applications are also mailed to all county public schools and available as well through the Office of Education. This same information is also mailed to all private schools in the county using a list updated and provided by the State of California.

Selection Process

School Grant Selection Team – Working with the County Office of Education, Chargers Champions sought to identify the important backgrounds necessary to fairly evaluate all proposals received and to ensure a good cross background of business, community, fitness and athletic educators, as well as school administrators. From their recommendations the Chargers Champions School Selection Team was formed.

The Selection Team meets as a group and reviews all grant submissions that have passed the first round review. This first round review checks to be sure that applications are complete and have been submitted properly, and that the grant proposal meets the stated guidelines of the program. Partially completed grant applications or applications with missing information are not considered.

The Selection Team then reviews each remaining application on its own merits and selects a group of finalists. After the finalists have been selected, site visits are scheduled to ensure accuracy of grant applications before finalizing decisions on grant awards.

School Grant Selection Team:

Congratulations to our 2016 Chargers Champions School Grant Winners!

2016 Chargers Champions