Eat Learn Play Foundation

ELP Foundation has also engaged in public-private partnerships with school districts, local government entities, foundations, and companies, while receiving major support from donor-advised fund and community-foundation sources including Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, East Bay Community Foundation, and National Philanthropic Trust. ³

Background

The Eat Learn Play Foundation (ELP Foundation) was founded in 2018 by Golden State Warriors basketball player Stephen Curry and his wife, Ayesha Curry, and received tax-exempt status in February 2019. ¹

The organization claims that it was founded to support children in Oakland through programs related to food access, literacy, and play. ² ELP Foundation’s activities have since expanded to include school meal distribution, literacy tutoring, book distribution, schoolyard renovations, youth sports programs, and partnerships with Oakland Unified School District and other local organizations. ^{2 4}

ELP Foundation has also operated the “Eat. Learn. Play. Bus,” a mobile resource center that the organization launched in September 2021. ⁵ The foundation claims the bus has distributed meals, groceries, books, and other materials to children and families in Oakland, with the Alameda County Community Food Bank managing food procurement and logistics and Community Kitchens providing meals from Oakland restaurants. ⁵

In January 2025, the organization announced that it, health-care provider Kaiser Permanente, and the TomKat Foundation had committed $650,000 claiming to provide emergency clean-water access in Oakland Unified School District schools after lead contamination concerns. ⁶

Later in 2025, ELP Foundation announced a summer meal effort in Oakland in partnership with the East Bay Community Foundation and the Alameda County Community Food Bank. ⁷ The organization claimed that the effort sought to provide 1,200 meals per day at more than 20 locations in Oakland and that donations would be matched up to $100,000. ⁷

Literacy Programs

The Eat Learn Play Foundation claims that its “Learn” work has included investments in tutoring for elementary students, literacy coaching for elementary school teachers and tutors, and partnerships with organizations such as Oakland Literacy Coalition, FluentSeeds, Oakland REACH, Reading Partners, Springboard Collaborative, Oakland Public Library, and Black Cultural Zone. ⁸

ELP Foundation has also operated book-distribution projects through the Eat. Learn. Play. Bus, Little Town Libraries, and school book fairs. ⁸ The foundation claims that the bus bookstore has been curated by Oakland Literacy Coalition, Literati, Oakland Public Library, among other literacy partners. ⁵

In December 2025, ELP Foundation announced that its Christmas with the Currys program, in partnership with security and AI operations company Rubrik, would host free holiday book fairs at 47 Oakland Unified School District elementary schools. ⁹ The organization claimed that the initiative would provide more than 17,000 students with the opportunity to select four new books and that more than 68,000 books would be distributed. ⁹

Schoolyard Renovations and Youth Sports

The Eat Learn Play Foundation claims that its “Play” work has included rebuilding schoolyards, installing multi-sport courts and soccer pitches, renovating gyms, and helping expand middle-school sports programming in Oakland. ¹⁰

As of 2026, the organization claimed that it had remodeled 24 schoolyards and intended to remodel more than 25 public elementary schoolyards by the end of 2026, with a longer-term goal of remodeling all public elementary schoolyards in Oakland. ¹¹

The foundation’s schoolyard projects have included play structures, gardens, nature exploration areas, outdoor classrooms, multi-sport courts, soccer fields, murals, and other outdoor school features. ¹¹

ELP Foundation claims that more than 4,000 volunteers had contributed more than 30,000 hours of service to schoolyard projects as of 2026. ¹¹

ELP Foundation claims that it renovated six middle and high school gyms in partnership with Under Armour and Curry Brand, while also committing to annual seven-figure investments the organization has claimed will reduce financial barriers to youth sports participation. ¹⁰

In 2025, ESPN announced that it was working with Stephen Curry, Ayesha Curry, and ELP Foundation through the Take Back Sports youth sports initiative. ¹² The initiative included a $5 million ESPN commitment to support organizations focused on youth sports access, coaching, multisport play, and related programming. ¹² The foundation claimed that the partnership would support its efforts to provide free sports programming for Oakland student-athletes and expand organized sports access in Oakland Unified School District. ¹²

Public-Private Partnerships

The Eat Learn Play Foundation’s website listed community partners including Alameda County Community Food Bank, Brigaid, Community Kitchens, No Kid Hungry, Trust for Public Land, TomKat Foundation, UC Berkeley, Oakland Literacy Coalition, Oakland REACH, Reading Partners, Springboard Collaborative, and Oakland Public Library. ^{13 8}

In September 2025, ELP Foundation announced that it was joining Martin Luther King III and Arndrea Waters King’s Realize the Dream initiative in Oakland and that Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry were being named Chief Dream Ambassadors of the campaign. ¹⁴ The organization claimed that the collaboration included a pledge of 100,000 volunteer hours in Oakland as part of a broader national effort to mobilize 100 million hours of service by 2029. ¹⁴

Later, in December 2025, the organization announced that MasterClass memberships would be provided to more than 18,000 educators, nutrition service workers, principals, administrators, community partners, and volunteers in Oakland Unified School District, San Francisco Unified School District, and the broader Oakland community. ¹⁵

ELP Foundation has also highlighted Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry’s appointment to the Biden administration’s President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition as part of its work on nutrition and physical activity policy. ¹⁶ The foundation claimed that it would use the Currys’ roles and platform to support state and federal nutrition programs and “advance policies” related to children and families. ¹⁶

Fundraising and Public-Education Campaigns

In January 2026, ELP Foundation announced Building Joy: A Movement to Reimagine Oakland’s Schoolyards, a documentary about its schoolyard projects with Oakland Unified School District and children’s active play nonprofit KABOOM!. ¹⁷

Additionally, in 2026, the organization announced that Stephen Curry’s Sotheby’s sneaker auction raised $1.7 million for the foundation, with the proceeds claiming to support Oakland children. ¹⁸

ELP Foundation has also been a charitable beneficiary of the Oakland Marathon and the financial management company Workday’s Memorial Golf Tournament. ¹⁹ In 2026, the organization claimed that the Oakland Marathon raised $150,000 for the foundation, while the Memorial Tournament announced in 2025 that ELP Foundation was among the beneficiaries of more than $5.3 million in charitable giving. ²⁰

Financials

According to Eat Learn Play Foundation’s 2024 tax filing, the organization reported $22,810,906 in revenue, $21,509,441 in expenses, and $17,188,713 in total assets. ²¹ ELP Foundation’s revenue came primarily in the form of contributions and grants, while the organization reported $0 in program service revenue and $485,213 in investment income. ²¹

Funding

CauseIQ reported grants made to the organization from Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, the East Bay Community Foundation, and National Philanthropic Trust. ³ CauseIQ further reported that ELP Foundation provided KABOOM! with $4,030,359 for school play-space renovations at Oakland Unified School District sites, Oakland Literacy Coalition with $375,000 for books and operating expenses, and the ASU Foundation with $150,000 for tutoring-program analysis and evaluation. ³

Listed supporting partners including Workday, Kaiser Permanente, Rubrik, Joie, Karsh Family Foundation, Lineage Foundation for Good, Chase, Del Grande Dealer Group (GDGD), DGDG Does Good, ESPN, Gilead Foundation, Hellman Foundation, KENDO, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, MasterClass, the Memorial Tournament, Nuna, PG&E Corporation Foundation, Rakuten, Ripple, Salesforce, Soul Force, TomKat Foundation, 2K Foundations, United, and Sohn Conference Foundation. ²²

In 2026, the Associated Press reported that Warren Buffett revived his charity lunch auction with Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry, with proceeds benefiting both GLIDE and ELP Foundation. The Associated Press reported that the auction closed at $9,000,100 and that Buffett planned to match the winning bid for each nonprofit. ²³

Leadership

As of 2026, Chris Helfrich was the chief executive officer of Eat Learn Play Foundation. ² Prior to this, Helfrich was the CEO of Starlight Children’s Foundation and the head of the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing but Nets Campaign. ²⁴

Ayesha Curry is co-founder of and, as of 2026, was president of Eat Learn Play Foundation. ²¹ Curry is an entrepreneur, cookbook author, and founder of the Sweet July lifestyle brand. ²⁵

Stephen Curry is co-founder of Eat Learn Play Foundation as previously served as the organization’s board chair. ²⁶ Curry is a professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors and has previously publicly endorsed Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Kamala Harris. ²⁷