Founded in 2008 to build the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball which hosts the FIBA world headquarters, the FIBA Foundation is the social and legacy arm of FIBA, addressing basketball’s role in society and preserving and promoting its values and cultural heritage. The Foundation’s main pillars are Basketball For Good and Basketball’s Cultural Heritage.
Since 2016, the FIBA Foundation collaborates with National Federations, governments, NGOs, partners, and communities, striving to address social issues, through community cohesion and equality, engaging in dialogue, sharing ideas and experiences, and empowering youths. The Basketball For Good activities are divided into 3 types of projects: Mini Basketball, Youth Leadership, and Community Impact. All these categories are aligned with the strategic priorities of FIBA. Since 2016 the FIBA Foundation and its Youth Leaders and Mini Basketball experts have given hope, joy, and the chance of a better future to over 95,000 children and youths per year.
FIBA’s Cultural Heritage is one of the driving forces behind the promotion and dissemination of basketball’s history and values. The Cultural Heritage unit preserves, researches, and promotes the cultural heritage of basketball and educates future generations. FIBA Foundation aims to be the global reference for basketball history and knowledge sharing. This objective reflects through the different activities such as the management of the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball museum, the historical archives and the collections of FIBA, and the organization of several cultural initiatives and events.
The FIBA Foundation and Special Olympics have joined forces because both parties share the desire to promote basketball as a tool for social development, specifically using basketball for inclusion.