Share Winter Foundation

Constance recognizes the life-changing power of snow sports, and cannot overlook the fact that many youth are denied access to these powerful experiences.  

This is what brought Constance to the Share Winter Foundation, where she works to improve the lives, health, and fitness of youth through winter sports and make the winter sports community more diverse and inclusive.   

While this may seem like an unlikely progression for a former Wall Street attorney who represented large financial firms, it aligned perfectly with her ethos, ethics, and expertise.

In addition to her work with the Share Winter Foundation, Constance has worked with other snow sports organizations including the Kelly Clark Foundation, SheJumps, STOKED, and Boarding for Breast Cancer. She’s a 2004 graduate of Saint Louis University, acquired her law degree in 2007 from the Hofstra School of Law, and is currently completing her Sports Philanthropy Certificate from George Washington University.

Youth from non-white, and/or lower income backgrounds have been traditionally denied access to snow sports (skiing/snowboarding) opportunities in the United Staes.  Share Winter works to aggregate and distribute resources (funding, lift tickets, discounted lessons, transportation, best practices, trainings, and industry connections) to schools, recreation centers, non-profits and other youth organizations so that they may easily provide opportunities for youth to use skiing and snowboarding to stay healthy and active in the winter.  76% of Children in the United States are not getting enough physical activity.  Moreover, researchers believe that drops in physical activity lead to children burning half as many calories in the winter.  By increasing access to and enrollment in learn to ski and snowboard programs, Share Winter hopes to (1) improve the health outcomes of youth and (2) help to diversify sports (and an industry) that is currently predominately white, male, and high income. 

The Ski Industry / Ski and Snowboard participation in the United States is predominately white, male, and higher income.  While skiing and snowboarding provide excellent opportunities for people to engage in healthy, active outdoor lifestyles in a country with rising obesity rates (particularly childhood obesity rates), rising costs and an atmosphere that is traditionally unwelcoming to "outsiders" discourages new ski and snowboard participants - particularly women and participants of color.  

The ski industry is know for its elitism and exclusivity, and as such, resources have been limited and less likely to be shared with non-white populations, and populations with lower socio-economic status.  Share Winter works to aggregate resources and distribute them through a grant making process which empowers local communities and youth organizations to expand mountain access for youth traditionally denied access to the sport and make the ski industry more diverse, inclusive, and welcoming.

Prioritizing programs that serve diverse youth, and youth from lower income households, Share Winter awards grants to well-vetted youth learn to ski and snowboard programs that have the capacity to expand and sustain access to create lifelong snow sports participants.  

Share Winter is a grantmaking organization. Donations raised are distributed to carefully vetted youth learn to ski and snowboard programs.  Programs must meet our competitive grant criteria and show promise for developing pathways for ongoing winter sports participation.

Grantmaking priorities include:  programs for underserved communities and/or groups that are underrepresented in the winter sports community.  Share Winter also takes into account cost effectiveness, strong community partnerships and proven track records of success.

Diversity, inclusion, and community involvement are all hallmarks of a strong partner program and we utilize our collective resources to create a more diverse, inclusive, and welcoming winter sports community. Our goal is to utilize our grants to grow winter sports participation and catalyze growth and inclusiveness in the winter sports community.

Share Winter is not a traditional funder. We don’t simply write checks and collect year end reports. Share Winter typically funds programs for 3-5 years, to help facilitate growth and increase both efficiency and efficacy. We engage in ongoing program monitoring, analysis, thought leadership and strategic support. We share and help implement best practices and industry insights. Share Winter works together with our grantees to provide the best on and off snow experiences for their youth.

Share Winter currently supports 45,940 youth through 27 grantee partners, which include:  recreation centers, non-profits, schools, non-profit ski areas, and ski clubs.  Programs take place at 61 Ski Areas, and operate in 23 states.  Youth are served through partner organizations who report to Share Winter through an extensive grant reporting process, program visits, data collection and surveys.  

Participant Demographics:

49% female  51% male

9% African American 

12% Hispanic/Latinx

4% Asian American

1% Native American

67% Caucasian 

.34% Native Hawaian/Pacific Islander 

3.6% Two or More Races

1.7% Other Races

1.8% Did Not Report 

38% of participants qualify for Free/Reduced Lunch Program

13% of other financial assistance

Share Winter grantees are required to provide at least 4 on snow days for each participant, and demonstrate a plan to connect each participant to pipelines for participation upon program graduation. Share Winter helps to build ongoing partnerships with ski areas, transportation providers, and ski/snowboard clubs. We are working with industry professionals, trade associations, retailers, manufacturers, and professional athletes to generate additional resources and opportunities for our new skiers and snowboarders and their families.

These youth would be unable to ski/snowboard without access to these resources.

In 2017, I was hired to take over the National Winter Sports Education Foundation, a small fund initially started to purchase a small ski area.  Once the ski area was purchased, the founders recognized that making a national, industry-wide impact required an organization with more extensive fundraising, grantmaking, and advocacy capabilities.  The founders contacted me based on my work with others snow sports organizations, professional athletes, and my business background.  

They approached me and asked if I thought I could build an organization that had a measurable and noticeable impact on the industry.  I took over the Foundation and rebranded it as Share Winter, in an effort to create not just a "fund" but an incubator, best practice generator and advocacy organization that could unite the major players in the industry to "share" their surpluses in a way that would increase opportunities for underserved youth while also growing their buisinesses.  The idea was born from my participation in a tech incubator (Boom Startup) in Park City Utah.  I decided that if resources were aligned for non-profits in this space the same way they were for technology entrepreneurs, we could disrupt philanthropy.  

I learned to ski with my father when I was 4 years old.  When he passed away when I was 9, cost and other factors meant that skiing was no longer an option for me.  As an anxious, non-athletic (except for skiing) kid who had suffered a pretty major trauma, losing out on an experience that brought me joy and took me out of my day to day environment was devastating.  At 14, I taught myself to snowboard using a discount coupon and wearing my dad's old ski gear with layers upon layers underneath.  I eavesdropped on lessons, and felt so much joy being back on the mountain: I truly found myself and regained long lost confidence.  Every kid should get an opportunity to escape their neighborhood, their school, their daily lives, in a healthy, exciting, and confidence building way.  Skiing and snowboarding are amazing opportunities for sports based youth development, and yet they are unattainable for most youth.  Share Winter works to eliminate the barriers to these transformative experiences, so every kid that wants to, can experience the mountain environment and stay healthy and active in the winter.  

An avid snowboarder who has worked for organizations across the country that use snow sports to empower women and youth, I have spent my life working with programs that I wish existed when I was a kid.  As a non-profit advisor, as a lawyer, board member, and consultant, for over 10 years, I have a unique aptitude for selecting strong programs, and identifying promising leaders that can elevate their programs with access to the right resources.  Moreover, my varied legal and business experience enables me to structure nonprofits in a non-traditional way, and use lean startup methodology and business models to break the barriers imposed by traditional philanthropy.  As an advocate, armed with statistics, analysis, and data, I'm able to uniquely leverage the talents of our portfolio of grantee partners to push for system wide impact within the ski industry.  My work in development, partnerships, and raising venture capital as an entrepreneur have allowed me to approach non-profit fundraising in straightforward and business minded way, which has brought together various facets of the ski industry to address issues that have been overlooked for years.  And at the end of the day, I still teach kids to snowboard, and share the love for the mountains that dramatically improved my life.  This work is my life, and embraces every skill, opportunity, and struggle I've faced, in the best possible way.  

In 2017, this non-profit had no structure and focused all of its energy and resources on purchasing a large asset (a ski area).  At the onset, I had to re-pitch the original funders with a plan to restructure and reinvent the organization.  Stepping up was no easy task, as I was a first time CEO replacing two founders who were both more than 20 years my senior and male.  Moreover, I was an industry outsider. Undaunted, in six months, I successfully separated the foundation from the ski area, restructured the grant process, completed 5 years of accounting and audits, rebuilt the board of directors, and secured funding for 3 years.  I met with industry leaders relentlessly, and rebuilt our programs from the ground up.  I didn't have any industry support, especially because for the ski industry, being both (1) a woman and (2) under 40, didn't bode well. Nonetheless, within a year and half we rebranded as Share Winter, and created the first industry wide collaborative partnership committed to youth snow sports participation, bringing together all the major trade associations in the ski industry.   In 2017, the organization funded 13,000 youth.  Today, we fund over 45,000 youth.    

I always followed the path I was expected to follow.  Until I didn't. I graduated from college with a perfect 4.0, went to law school on a full scholarship, and graduated at the top of my class.  I scored a job on Wall Street.  I hated it. I stuck it out and paid my bills, until I couldn't anymore.  I gave it all up, and co-founded a technology company with a friend of mine.  I decided to step off the assembly line and build my own.  Everyone thought I was insane.  I was the last person in my high school to get a computer, and there I was, overseeing technology teams in Pakistan and learning how to manage a team of men that all had extensive backgrounds in technology.  Our company never took off, and my carefully built financial safety net went down with it.  Yet, I just took it as a learning experience, and kept taking opportunities, anything that came my way, some for little or no pay.  I never stopped finding ways to keep pursuing a dream of finding my place in the world.  Enter Share Winter.  In theory, what I'm doing wasn't "possible," but here I am.

Share Winter is the only grant maker that funds youth learn to ski and snowboard programs based solely on the positive impact of teaching youth to learn to ski or ride.  Our grantees are not only provided with funds, but resources, community, and access to best practices and industry knowledge.  Share Winter operates more like an "incubator" than a traditional funder.

Currently 45,000/year

In one year:  45,000 (likely due to Coronavirus).

In five years:  100,000/year

This year, our goal is to sustain our current partnerships and work to produce best practice and advocacy materials to help them restructure post-coronavirus and grow with anticipated increased demand in 2021.

Our barriers to greater impact are purely financial, as we've established the pipelines and can currently support needed efforts to fund 45,000 with our current budget (1.5M).  We need to add additional funds to expand staff and extend our current offerings to more youth, to reach our goal of serving 100,000 youth per year.  

We are currently working on pitching potential funders who will double our budget and grant making for the next 5 years.  

Ski Industry Associations:  National Ski Areas Association, Snowsports Industries America, National Federation of Ski Councils, Professional Ski Instructors of America, National Ski Patrol, US Ski and Snowboard Team.  We share data, resources and best practices, and we're working to establish employment pipelines for our youth within the industry.