Impact
Measuring what matters: consistency, access, and belonging
International Sports and Music Project measures impact through Individual Impact Hours: the total number of hours young people spend participating in ISMP-supported programs.
We use this metric because our work is not just about reaching a young person once. It is about creating consistent access to safe, supportive spaces over time: practices, classes, games, tournaments, recording sessions, mentorship moments, performances, community events, and everyday opportunities to play, create, gather, and belong.
A single hour of sports or music can matter. Repeated hours, in the presence of caring adults and trusted local leaders, can shape a young person’s confidence, friendships, expression, discipline, leadership, and sense of possibility.
Over our first decade, ISMP has helped create more than 1,000,000 Individual Impact Hours across five countries.
What Are Individual Impact Hours?
A deeper way to understand reach
Many organizations measure impact by counting how many people they reach. That matters, but it does not always tell the full story.
If 100 young people attend one event, that is meaningful. But if 100 young people each participate in 100 hours of programming over time, that is something different. That reflects consistency, trust, relationship, routine, growth, and community.
That is why ISMP uses Individual Impact Hours.
For example:
50 young people participating in 10 hours of programming = 500 Individual Impact Hours
200 young people participating in a 5-hour tournament = 1,000 Individual Impact Hours
100 young people participating in 2 hours of programming each week for 20 weeks = 4,000 Individual Impact Hours
This helps us understand not only how many young people participate, but how much consistent access they have to sports, music, mentorship, and supportive community spaces.
Our Impact at a Glance
10+ years of sports, music, and community
1,000,000+ Individual Impact Hours
Created through ISMP-supported sports and music programs.
5 countries
Programs and partnerships across the United States, Uganda, Rwanda, Greece, and Micronesia.
Locally led programs
Built around trusted coaches, teachers, coordinators, and community leaders.
Sports and music access
Including soccer, basketball, track, volleyball, netball, dance, music classes, recording opportunities, tournaments, and community events.
Courts, fields, and music hubs
Physical spaces that expand long-term access to sports, music, mentorship, and community.
A lean, high-impact model
Designed to stretch resources, support local leadership, and create meaningful impact per dollar.
Why Sports and Music?
Joy is not extra
Sports and music are often treated like extras. For the young people ISMP serves, they can be much more than that.
A basketball court can become a place where a young person builds confidence.
A soccer field can become a place where a community gathers.
A track team can become a place where girls lead and compete.
A music class can become a place where a young person discovers their voice.
A recording studio can become a place where creativity, identity, and expression come alive.
Sports and music create joy, but they also create structure, belonging, mentorship, confidence, friendship, teamwork, discipline, leadership, and emotional expression.
ISMP exists because we believe young people deserve consistent access to those spaces.
The ISMP Model
Local leaders. Long-term relationships. Consistent access.
ISMP does not believe in one-size-fits-all programming. Every community is different, and the strongest programs are led by people who understand the local context.
Our role is to help resource, strengthen, and sustain that leadership.
ISMP supports impact by helping provide:
Coaches, teachers, and local coordinators
Sports and music equipment
Program funding and stipends
Tournaments, classes, practices, performances, and community events
Courts, fields, studios, and other community spaces
Ongoing partnership, reporting, communication, and support
This model allows ISMP to stay lean while helping local leaders create consistent, meaningful opportunities for young people.
Facilities as Impact
Building the places where programs can thrive
ISMP does not only fund activities. We also help build and support the physical spaces where young people can practice, play, create, gather, and belong.
Courts, fields, and music hubs can become anchors for long-term community programming. When paired with trusted coaches, teachers, and local leaders, these spaces create opportunities that extend far beyond a single season or event.
ISMP has helped build or support community spaces including:
Soccer and basketball facilities in Uganda
A basketball court in Rwanda
A music studio and creative hub in Greece
A legacy soccer field project in Ritsona, Greece
These spaces reflect one of ISMP’s core beliefs: lasting youth development often requires both strong local leadership and safe, consistent places where programs can happen.
Impact Across Five Countries
United States
In the Bronx, ISMP supports youth sports programming that creates consistency, confidence, and community for students and young people. The Bronx track program has grown into an important example of how sports can build discipline, friendship, leadership, and belonging, with especially strong participation from girls and young women.
ISMP is also working to expand community-facing sports opportunities in the Bronx through events and partnerships that bring youth, families, schools, and local leaders together.
Uganda
In Uganda, ISMP supports year-round youth sports programming centered around Kikaaya and the surrounding community. Young people participate in soccer, basketball, volleyball, netball, karate, pickleball, chess, and community sports events.
ISMP has also helped build major sports facilities at Kikaaya, including a soccer field and basketball court. These spaces support regular practices, games, tournaments, school programming, and community access.
The annual Buloba District Tournament is one example of how ISMP-supported programs can create large-scale community impact through sports, teamwork, and celebration.
Rwanda
In Rwanda, ISMP supports locally led sports, dance, and youth development programming through several partner sites organized around two main clusters: Kigali-area/Central Rwanda programming and Eastern Province/Kabeza-area programming.
Across these sites, young people participate in regular activities that build teamwork, confidence, expression, belonging, and connection to caring local leaders.
ISMP supports the work by helping provide equipment, program funding, coordination, and long-term partnership with Rwandan coaches and community leaders.
Greece
In Greece, ISMP supports music and creative expression programming for young people and communities who have faced barriers to access, including refugee and migrant communities.
A major part of this work is ISMP’s partnership with Musikarama, a music studio and creative hub where young people can learn, collaborate, record, and express themselves.
Music gives young people a way to process emotion, build confidence, connect across language and culture, and experience joy and identity beyond the challenges they may be facing.
Micronesia
ISMP’s story began in Pohnpei, Micronesia, where founder Jason Steinberg taught English and coached basketball in 2014. What started as a small effort to provide sneakers, jerseys, and athletic opportunities for student-athletes became the founding vision for International Sports and Music Project.
Micronesia remains central to ISMP’s long-term impact story through leaders like Jerome, who first connected with ISMP as a young athlete and later became a coach, athletic director, community leader, and ISMP’s longtime country coordinator.
His journey reflects the kind of ripple effect ISMP hopes to support everywhere we work: young people gaining confidence, leadership, opportunity, and a deeper connection to their communities.
What Makes ISMP Different
Small enough to stay close. Experienced enough to scale.
ISMP is a lean organization with a global footprint. Our model is built around trust, consistency, and long-term relationships rather than large centralized infrastructure.
That means donor support can go directly toward the things that make programs possible: local leaders, equipment, facilities, classes, practices, tournaments, music sessions, and community events.
We are proud of the impact ISMP has created with limited resources. We are also building toward the next stage of growth: stronger systems, deeper reporting, more sustainable funding, and more consistent support for the leaders and communities already creating impact every day.
ISMP’s first decade proved what is possible. The next decade is about building on that foundation responsibly.
How Your Support Creates Impact
Every gift helps create access
Donor support helps ISMP create and sustain the conditions that allow young people to participate consistently in sports and music.
Your gift can help:
Fund a coach or music teacher
Provide sports or music equipment
Support a tournament or community event
Keep a program running consistently
Help build or maintain a court, field, or music space
Support local leaders coordinating programs on the ground
Expand access for girls, refugee and migrant communities, students, and young people facing barriers to participation
Every dollar helps create more hours of access, mentorship, joy, expression, and belonging.
More hours means more opportunity. More consistency means deeper impact.
Help Us Create the Next 1,000,000 Individual Impact Hours
ISMP has spent more than a decade proving that sports and music can create powerful, lasting impact when they are rooted in local leadership and consistent access.
Now we are building toward the next chapter: more programs, stronger local leaders, better facilities, deeper reporting, and more young people experiencing the joy, confidence, expression, and belonging that sports and music can provide.