2024 World AIDS Day Gala Raises More Than $2 Million for Grassroot Soccer

On December 3 – Giving Tuesday – celebrities and high-profile individuals from the worlds of sport, entertainment, and global health came together at Hall des Lumières in New York City to support the 2024 World AIDS Day Gala, which raised more than $2 million for Grassroot Soccer!

At the Gala, Grassroot Soccer honored the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team with its Game Changer Award for their trailblazing leadership and powerful advocacy for gender equity, which continues to change the landscape of sports and uplift the rights of girls and women everywhere. Accepting the Award on stage on behalf of the team were 2x World Cup winners Tobin Heath, Carli Lloyd, Ali Krieger, and Christen Press.

“I have experienced the work of Grassroot Soccer up close on the ground, and I’ve seen what is possible when young women and girls, and young men and boys, are healthy in mind, body, and spirit,” said Press, who is a Grassroot Soccer Global Ambassador and Board Member, in a speech opening the night. “When you are mentally and physically healthy – you can achieve great things, from the simple to the extraordinary.”

The evening was emceed by gala host Roger Bennett, founder of the Men In Blazers Media Network. “Football is at its best when it transcends football and is about true human goodness,” Bennett said in his welcome. “And there are so few places that are more true to that than the organization that we’re here all here to celebrate tonight, Grassroot Soccer.”

Other notable figures in attendance included Kola Bokinni (actor from the Emmy and SAG Award-winning Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso), Tim Howard (former goalkeeper for U.S. Men’s National Team and Manchester United), Don Garber (Major League Soccer Commissioner), Jessica Berman (National Women’s Soccer League Commissioner), Kyle Martino (former U.S. Men’s National Team player), JT Batson (CEO/Secretary General, US Soccer), Jenn Mackesy (co-owner of Gotham FC), Ethan Zohn (Grassroot Soccer Co-founder and winner of CBS’s Survivor: Africa) and Lance Armstrong.

Bokinni and Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos presented the Game Changer Award to the USWNT. Following their award acceptance, Heath, Lloyd, Krieger, and Press sat down with Grassroot Soccer Global Board Members Dr. Akudo Anyanwu and Dawn Averitt for a fireside chat about their achievements on and off the pitch, including their fight for pay equity.

“We weren’t fighting just for us,” Krieger said about their work toward earning a landmark equal pay agreement. “We were fighting for so many other women who wanted that voice as well, and wanted that platform.”

“Through soccer, we’re able to communicate these messages that are literally saving lives,” Heath said when asked about her and Press’s visit to Zambia to see Grassroot Soccer programs last year. “[Grassroot Soccer Coaches] are able to communicate and use this incredible gift we’ve been given in football – in sports – to break through barriers, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”

The program also featured video messages of support from David Beckham, Seth Meyers, Naomi Girma, Julie Foudy, and Christian Pulisic, and concluded with a live auction featuring a Manchester United matchday experience with Sir Alex Ferguson and a week’s holiday at the Xarraca Estate in Northern Ibiza. The menu was curated by chef Marcus Samuelsson.

The evening also celebrated the public launch of Grassroot Soccer’s Play It Forward campaign – an ambitious and transformative campaign to raise $35 million over 5 years to catalyze growth and help the organization scale its impact to reaching tens of millions of adolescents each year with life-saving programs.

The evening was supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), Getty Images, Merck, Gilead, Diageo, and more.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to an unforgettable evening and making the event a massive success. Together, we’re #PlayingForLife.