FIT KIDS FOUNDATION INC
Run, Jump, Lead
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Physical inactivity among U.S. children is one of our most serious public health challenges, and income-based disparities have been growing. The lowest-income kids are now more than three times as likely to be physically inactive as their highest-income peers. Obesity is one of the consequences. Recent data show that kids in households with poverty-level incomes are more than twice as likely to be obese as those in middle- and upper-income households. Ethnicity and culture are additional risk factors. Hispanic and African-American children suffer from obesity at nearly twice the rate of non-Hispanic white children. COVID-19 has aggravated these risks and disparities. With school closures and all that time at home, kids have been even less active—and it makes them more vulnerable to unhealthy weight gain.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
The Fit Kids Program
Fit Kids is a structured physical activity program that adapts to any educational setting. The classic Fit Kids experience is team-based and rich in social-emotional learning. Fit Kids online platform and mobile app offer nearly 200 individual workout videos. Kids use them to stay active at home and teachers and coaches use them to lead no-contact group exercises at school.
Any school or community organization can implement Fit Kids with their existing staff. The full, year-long curriculum consists of fifty 60-minute lessons that incorporate Warm-Ups, Fitness Movements, Obstacle Courses or Relay Races, PE Games, Yoga Stretches, Cool-Down Stretches, and Mindfulness Exercises. The Fitness movements are based on bodyweight and can be done by any age. The PE Games are suitable for both elementary and middle school grade levels. There are four fitness focus areas—Upper Body, Lower Body, Core Strength, and Agility—that repeat and progress in difficulty over the year.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of children that participate in our programs each school year.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
At-risk youth, Children and youth, Economically disadvantaged people
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
In 2020, Fit Kids went 100% virtual in response to the pandemic. The online video platform we created extended our program's reach as never before.
Number of schools and community organzitions Fit Kids partners with each year.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, At-risk youth, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
The Fit Kids Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Fit Kids partners with schools and community organizations serving disadvantaged households throughout the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Fit Kids’ mission is to provide structured physical activity programs for underserved children to build the foundation for a healthy, active life. Our immediate goal is to increase activity levels for at-risk K-8 students and help them build fitness, motor and social-emotional skills. Our long-term goal is to motivate kids to adopt fitness habits that will guard their physical and mental health for a lifetime.
We are very excited that 21,395 K-8 students are once again experiencing Fit Kids in person at 122 sites throughout the Bay Area and Los Angeles in the 2021-2022 school year. Even more children are accessing our online video library and practicing self-directed workouts, yoga flows and mindfulness exercises through other community partnerships.
A recent report measured the impact of the pandemic on health, wellbeing and income for Bay Area households. We are grateful that the poverty rate—although unacceptably high and disproportionately high for people of color—did not increase. This is likely due to federal COVID relief payments and the services of the nonprofit sector. What did increase—by about 50%—was the number of children experiencing problems with academic and social-emotional development. The number of parents who reported children performing below their academic potential rose from 18% in 2019 to 30% after ten months of remote learning—and the number of children experiencing behavioral challenges increased from 19% to 27%. Sadly, this is exactly what we might expect to happen for children isolated at home, in front of screens, without opportunities to release energy and build strength and resilience.
Now that schools have re-opened and Fit Kids is in-person again, we must make up for lost time and help our kids heal from this challenging time in their young lives. Fit Kids is committed to being a creative, problem-solving organization. Our children's health depends on it!
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
The Fit Kids Program is a professionally-designed and supported curriculum that schools and community organizations can implement with their existing staff. Partner Sites qualify to receive the program at no cost, based on the percentage of their students who are low income, i.e. eligible for free and reduced-price meal programs. While any site with more than 50% eligible qualifies, the average percent eligible at Partner Sites is closer to 90%. Other schools and organizations that have the capacity raise the money required to cover the full cost of the program, and some even gift a program to another school.
Partner Sites have access to the curriculum, which we update annually, in both digital and hard copy. Partner Site Coordinators also receive annual training and 1:1 support from our Director of Programs. The Fit Kids curriculum consists of fifty 60-minute lessons that incorporate Warm-Ups, Fitness Movements, Obstacle Courses or Relay Races, PE Games, Yoga Stretches, Cool-Down Stretches, and Mindfulness Exercises.
There are four fitness focus areas—Upper Body, Lower Body, Core Strength, and Agility—that repeat and progress in difficulty over the year. All activities build fitness and motor skills and many encourage communication, teamwork and other social-emotional skill building. Fit Kids uses the power of resistance training, which builds muscular strength and endurance, promotes cardiovascular fitness and insulin sensitivity in overweight youth, and helps kids avoid injuries.
The COVID-19 era has disrupted and inspired creative adjustments to Fit Kids programming. Our online Home Workout Library now has close to 200 individual videos and more in production. Each one demonstrates an activity a child can do on their own with little or no equipment and limited space. Our Home Workout Calendar provides a month-long schedule of daily videos. It offers a clear path to better fitness and helps kids stay on that path—and our new Fit Kids mobile app puts all that potential right into a child’s hand.
Fit Kits offer additional, personal support to Fit Kids participants. The kits provide the light equipment needed to follow along with an additional series of 30 videos. Providing each child with their own personal equipment to use, rather than sharing equipment, and leading groups with the help of the videos, offer a COVID-safe option for Fit Kids programming as we transition back to in-person learning.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Fit Kids was born in the Bay Area ten years ago and our program has been shaped by working with local schools and local kids. We have long believed that our superpower is keeping it simple, especially for our Partner Site Coordinators, who implement Fit Kids on the ground. The challenge of adapting our mission to virtual and distance learning tested this ability, and ultimately strengthened Fit Kids’ brand as the premier “plug and play” fitness curriculum for young children. For under-resourced schools, the advantage of an effective turnkey program cannot be overstated. The same is true for stressed parents juggling home schooling and full-time work.
Fit Kids is lean enough to stay nimble. We are a small shop and our innovation cycle is short, so we are able to respond quickly to changes in the educational and fitness environments, like those posed by COVID-19. A larger organization with a related mission may be less responsive to on-the-ground needs. Overly complex and cumbersome interfaces and programs that are outdated and difficult to implement can be the result. Fit Kids avoids this by keeping it simple and listening closely to what participants and Partner Sites tell us.
This is what Mary Gray, PE Teacher and Fit Kids Coordinator at Rose Elementary in Milpitas shared earlier this year: “Congratulations to Fit Kids on TEN YEARS! Such an awesome milestone and I am honored to get to teach your curriculum. In my 5 years with your program, it keeps getting better and better! I also wanted to compliment the new website design. It’s awesome! So user-friendly and very eye-catching. The longer videos are great for teaching and sharing with my students to do on their own. I also appreciate the individual skill demonstrations for the students to refer to during this virtual season. Thank you for all you do to keep kids healthy and moving.”
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Please see our 2020-2021 school year Annual Report.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals, To help us determine which program recipients should have their profiles raised in our community
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, In addition to gathering data from SurveyMonkey, we follow-up individually
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
FIT KIDS FOUNDATION INC
Board of directorsas of 11/22/2023
Russell Hirsh
Fit Kids
Amy Burnett
Fit Kids
Ashley Hunter
Fit Kids
Russell Hirsch
Prospect Venture Partners
Sanjay Morey
Twin Ridge Capital Partners
Nancy Ford
Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts
Charlotte Zanders Waxman
Fit Kids
Ashley Giesler
Anacapa Partners
Wendy McAdam
Fit Kids
Andy Logan
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Wiley Anderson
Entrepreneur / Investor
Ashley Still
Adobe
Chrissy Ginieczki
Title IX Sports
Courtney Charney
Parc Agency
Jennifer Birk
Oracle
Ashley Caldwell
Sapphire Ventures
Anthony J McCusker
Goodwin Procter's Technology
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? No -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.