The Spartan Race is launching a charitable foundation designed to fund fitness and health initiatives for children. The Spartan Foundation has been created under the non-profit tax umbrella of the Giving Back Fund, a Massachusetts group that provides assistance to athletic charities. The foundation will specifically support three endeavors, Founder & CEO JOE DE SENA said: Autism Speaks, the leading autism advocacy group; FNV, an arm of the Partnership for a Healthy America focused on childhood nutrition; and Special Spartans, the race series’ program for children with special needs. De Sena said he wants to instill the same love of fitness he had as a child in today’s youth, but he also acknowledged a business angle. “It comes from pure passion,” De Sena said. “And then within the larger Spartan ethos, or plan, there is no better strategy anyway than to focus on the kids. The kids are the next audience for us.” The obstacle race series is not yet profitable and continues to search for new revenue growth. The current average age of Spartan Race participants is 32, he said. Four-time NCAA champion and Olympic hopeful wrestler KYLE DAKE has joined as the foundation’s youth ambassador. The Spartan Race Inc. has seeded the fund to a tune “well into the 100s of thousands of dollars,” said DANIEL GOLDSTEIN, a Spartan employee who has been put in charge of the foundation. The body is soliciting founding contributors on its website.
