The women who signed up for Velasco Tennis this summer had wanted to learn tennis for years. What had stopped them, they told their coach, was always the same two things: the lessons cost too much, and there was nothing close enough to home.
Velasco Tennis built its Deerfield Beach program around removing both. The Tennis for Hope moms and kids program ran Monday and Tuesday afternoons from mid-June through August, built for single moms and their children, most of them 10 and under. A $1,200 Program Support Grant from the USTA Florida Section Foundation, matched by $1,000 from Velasco Tennis, brought the cost to $16 per participant.
Twenty people came through the program, roughly 10 moms and nine kids.
Why it Worked
Velasco Tennis promoted the program on Instagram, kept it local so families were not driving across the county, and priced it where a single parent could say yes without thinking hard about it.
The price did most of the work, and it caught at least one person off guard. Melissa was scrolling Instagram when she saw the post, and her first thought was that it had to be a joke, because nobody charges that little. She signed up anyway, and plans to keep playing.
The moms came for the lessons. What several of them seem to have valued just as much was doing something active alongside their kids rather than watching from a bench.
“This grant was essential to the success of our program because moms are very happy to continue in tennis lessons and improve their game, as well as the kids,” said a spokesperson from Velasco Tennis.
The organization is candid that it hoped for higher enrollment, and plans to lean harder on social media promotion for the next cycle. It has also applied for a USTA equipment grant, and community partners are currently helping with tennis balls.
Why the Foundation Funds This
Program Support Grants are the USTA Florida Section Foundation’s primary tool for getting tennis into communities that want it and need help paying for it. The funding covers on-court instruction, equipment, coach training and general program support, with priority given to youth tennis, adaptive tennis for players of all ages and abilities, and programs serving under-resourced communities.
A $1,200 grant does not sound like much next to a capital campaign. Spread across 20 people who had written tennis off as something for other families, it bought a summer.
Since 2005, the Foundation has delivered more than $2.5 million in community impact, supporting programs at more than 120 organizations across Florida.
That funding comes from individual and corporate donors, the Foundation’s recurring donor program, the US Open Experience fundraiser, and Florida’s “Play Tennis!” specialty license plate. Velasco Tennis has had a Play Tennis! plate for six years and points clients toward it when they ask.
Applications for Program Support Grants open in two cycles each year. Learn more at ustafloridafoundation.com/apply-for-grants, or support programs like Tennis for Hope at ustafloridafoundation.com.
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