ABOUT ALISHA
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For 25 years, Alisha Greenberg has been at the forefront of sports philanthropy, helping to establish the field and shaping how leagues, athletes, and brands harness sports for social impact.
A trusted expert and industry pioneer, she has spoken at Engage for Good, SXSW, and other industry conferences and has been featured in global media outlets including ESPN, The New York Times, and Sports Business Journal.
She has spent over two decades sharing her expertise with organizations such as Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, NIKE Global Community Impact, the U.S. Soccer Foundation, the U.S. Tennis Association, and the Women's Sports Foundation.
She formed Rounding Third LLC in 2009 to advise on strategy, partnerships, and evaluation for prominent clients including Athletes for Hope, Wins for Warriors (founded by MLB All-Star Justin Verlander), Kids Play International (founded by 3x Olympian Tracy Evans), Positive Tracks, the President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition, Sports Business Journal, and The Skatepark Project (founded by Tony Hawk).
For over two decades, Alisha has served as a key subject matter expert for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), a leading national philanthropy. Early in her career, she oversaw sports partnerships for the RWJF-funded Sports Philanthropy Project (SPP), the first national organization dedicated to bringing together sports leaders working in social impact. She went on to spend 18 years directing the Foundation’s prestigious sports award program. She currently serves as RWJF Sports Culture Advisor, using sports and culture as a platform to amplify the Foundation’s mission.
Alisha regularly leads guest lectures at prominent institutions including Cal Poly, Georgetown, Indiana University, Michigan, Michigan State and Yale. She is dedicated to education and training for emerging and current leaders in the field and serves as co-founder and co-director of the Sports and Entertainment Impact Collective (SEIC). SEIC's Certificate Program, Custom Facilitation and Speaker Series events are designed to elevate expertise and inspire action.
Alisha graduated from Indiana University, earning a degree in Sports Marketing and Management with a minor in Business. She holds a Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate from The Center for Public & Nonprofit Leadership at Georgetown University. She is a dedicated board member for Leveling the Playing Field.
EXPERT ADVISING
Bringing a perspective few others can offer, Alisha combines experience as a funder, academic, and practitioner to guide your strategy and impact. She brings a rare ability to identify connections and opportunities across sports, philanthropy, and culture that others may not see. With deep cross-sector insight and a network built over decades, she can help you or your organization achieve lasting impact.
Awards & grantmaking
Alisha has spent decades designing and managing award and recognition programs, giving her an unparalleled view of the sports impact landscape.
She currently advises Sports Business Journal on the Celebration of Service award, which annually honors organizations exemplifying sport as a catalyst for social change.
Previously, Alisha spent 18 years as director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s sports award program, widely regarded as the gold standard in the field. Over nearly two decades, the program attracted more than 1,400 applicants, engaged over 100 industry leaders in the selection process, and recognized over 50 winning organizations, with close to $700,000 invested back into the sector.
Additionally, Alisha has been invited to serve on grant review committees including the Sports 4 Life grant presented by espnW and the Women’s Sports Foundation, and the Pat Tillman Foundation Scholar selection committee. She has also served as a “Wise Head” for 100&Change and Lever for Change on behalf of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
thought leadership
With 25 years at the center of the field, Alisha is among the most sought-after voices in sports philanthropy. She is regularly called upon as a go-to resource by league executives, foundation leaders, brands, and emerging practitioners.
She has presented on industry trends and innovation with NIKE Global Community Impact leaders and on measurement and evaluation with NBA team foundation leaders. At SXSW, she joined Booz Allen and Samsung on a panel exploring how sports organizations can use immersive technology to improve health outcomes.
The U.S. Tennis Association invited Alisha to co-develop and co-lead a session titled “Leading from Within: Leadership Skills for Sports Impact Professionals” at the USTA Foundation Impact Conference. She co-developed and led a session at Engage for Good titled “Beyond the Photo Op: Engaging Sports in Effective and Meaningful Partnerships,” featuring Major League Baseball, the San Francisco Giants, and Wintrust Financial.
Campaigns & Partnerships
With long-standing relationships across sectors, Alisha helps clients build thoughtful partnerships and identify trusted organizations aligned with their goals.
While working with the President's Council for Fitness, Sports & Nutrition (PCFSN), Alisha was instrumental in leading initial collaborative efforts between league offices, PCFSN and the Let's Move campaign (led by First Lady Michelle Obama). Multiple high profile public events for the White House resulted from her connections.
Working with Athletes for Hope (AFH), Alisha served as a content expert as the organization developed tools, resources and support for individual athletes, leagues, teams and sports organizations. She leveraged her extensive network to connect AFH with new partners.
During her time at the Sports Philanthropy Project, she directed sports outreach efforts for a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation social marketing campaign. Alisha led a partnership with Major League Soccer that reached over 1.2 million fans about the availability of health care coverage for kids.
Athlete Foundations
Alisha has guided athlete foundations at every stage, from launch to long-term strategy, and understands the unique opportunities and challenges that come with building a foundation around an athlete's name and legacy.
As founding executive director for Wins for Warriors, founded by MLB All Star Justin Verlander, Alisha led the creation and launch of the organization that focused on Veteran mental health. The startup phase included conducting a needs assessment, creating grant guidelines, directing fundraising events, securing national media attention, and cultivating relationships with key funders and partners including the White House.
Alisha provided strategic consulting to 3x Olympian, Tracy Evans. Tracy's organization, Kids Play International, is a global nonprofit focused on gender equity. Alisha provided guidance to Tracy on a range of topics including identifying key areas for growth, developing new mission/vision statements, examining program curriculum design, and identifying potential revenue sources.
evaluation
Alisha has served as an external, third-party evaluator for nonprofit organizations, offering credibility and unbiased validation. She has experience with surveys, interviews, and focus groups, and brings a talent for translating findings into compelling stories.
In partnership with Dr. Kathy Babiak (University of Michigan), Alisha completed an evaluation report for The Skatepark Project (founded by Tony Hawk) covering strategic development, program growth, fundraising opportunities, and peer benchmarking.
Alisha and Kathy also conducted an extensive evaluation of program outcomes and impact for Positive Tracks, a nonprofit empowering youth to give back through athletics. Positive Tracks went on to win the 2018 Beyond Sport Global Award for Best Partnership or Collaboration in Sport for Good, citing the evaluation work as a key factor in their selection.
Alisha’s trusted leadership also extends to compensation assessments, where she brings discretion, clarity, and thoughtful analysis.
EDUCATION & CONVENING
Alisha has spent 25 years creating and leading education opportunities in sports philanthropy, helping to build the learning infrastructure of the field itself.
At the Sports Philanthropy Project, she brought the impact side of sports into academic and philanthropic spaces for the first time. In addition to building new opportunities for over 1,500 sports leaders to convene at annual conferences and events, she created collaborations, each a first of its kind, including a sports philanthropy track at the Council on Foundations Philanthropy Summit, a training in partnership with Columbia University, and a workshop with NASSM (North American Society for Sport Management).
She went on to co-found the Sports and Entertainment Impact Collective (SEIC) alongside Meredith Wolff. Through SEIC’s Certificate Program, Custom Facilitation, and Speaker Series, Alisha has helped train and connect close to 1,000 sports and entertainment leaders over the past decade.
Alisha also regularly leads guest lectures at prominent institutions including Cal Poly, Georgetown, Indiana University, Michigan, Michigan State, and Yale.
Strategic Message Amplification
Alisha is a trusted advisor to organizations using sports as a platform for social impact and narrative change.
She played a central role in developing a playbook for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focused on narrative change through sports. Her work with RWJF spans research, athlete partnerships, educational video content, and strategic amplification of the Foundation’s mission during major sports moments throughout the year.
That work has helped generate over 400 million media impressions through sports influencer storytelling featuring Alex Morgan, Allyson Felix, Simone Manuel, and Cullen Jones, along with Coaching Moms, NBA Wives, and Athletes Unlimited. Direct in-person fan engagement activations reached over 10,000 fans at events ranging from the Super Bowl to the NBA and WNBA All-Star Games.