Jiu Jitsu for All.
Guardian is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing free Brazilian Jiu Jitsu scholarships to underserved youth around the world.
Today, Guardian supports 36 academies across multiple countries. In the United States, our programs often operate within established gyms that generously provide mat space for Guardian students. Internationally, we frequently serve as the primary funding source for entire academies, allowing us to maximize impact where the need is greatest while making efficient use of existing infrastructure whenever possible.
Your donation helps pay local coaches, provide gis, rash guards, mats, and equipment, and create safe, consistent places where children can learn, grow, and thrive through grappling.
A generous donor has stepped forward to cover Guardian's operating expenses, so every new donation goes directly to supporting Guardian academies and the children they serve. That means no money spent on salaries, office space, or other expenses that don’t go to helping kids find the mats and stay on them.
You can give wherever Guardian believes your support will have the greatest impact, or designate your donation to a specific Guardian academy and community.
1000+ underserved youth students are currently fully sponsored within our 36 Guardian academies worldwide.
@GuardianBJJ
We partner with existing academies to bring our scholarships to youth that need it most. This approach allows donations to maximize efficiency as those academies already have rent, utilities, mats, cleaning, and other expenses covered.
We sponsor international projects to provide training and apparel for youth. This includes building academies from the ground up, or making improvements to existing spaces such as new mats, showers, training gear, and more.
What we do:
Add a Guardian Scholarship to your academy.
Our Story
Guardian was founded by Ben Kovacs and Joel Lunenfeld while working at Twitter, noticing that much of bay area philanthropy was not solving the real-world challenges facing youth. Initially, Guardian started in 2015 as a single academy in Oakland, California. The original program was a resounding success for the first 6 years of the organization, with over 1,000 kids coming through the doors to train.
In 2020, we evolved our approach and introduced the Guardian Scholarship. This initiative was designed to broaden our reach, offering support to children worldwide to engage in training. Leveraging our extensive network of friends and academy partners accumulated over the years, we started integrating scholarships within their schools, ensuring that financial barriers do not prevent children from accessing our programs. Every child deserves the chance to participate.
As we forge ahead, we are committed to expanding the availability of our scholarship, touching more cities and countries, and thus providing countless more children with the transformative benefits that jiu-jitsu has to offer.
In 2021, Calder Powers, one of Guardian’s earliest volunteers, was promoted to serve as executive director. He continues to lead the organizations content efforts, school outreach, and much more every day.
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