For Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington DC NFL team, formerly know as the Washington Redskins, philanthropy isn’t just part of the job; it’s a personal commitment. Since he purchased the team in 1999, he has been instrumental in ramping up the team’s charitable activities. For Snyder, owning the team is about more than just excellence on the playing field. He is devoted to giving back to the local, and the global communities.
One of the first things Snyder did after purchasing the Redskins was to create the Washington Charitable Foundation. This non-profit’s stated mission is to “bring together the Washington team and its corporate and community partners to make a positive and measurable impact on youth development in the greater Washington, DC. region. Since it was founded, the Washington Charitable Foundation has raised more than $29 million to help Washington DC area youth. One recent Washington Charitable Foundation project was to host more than 115 in-school workshops and special events for children and their families in conjunction a children’s literacy program. More than 12,000 students in four area school districts were able to participate.
The foundation has also been very active in providing relief for areas devastated by recent hurricanes, including airlifting supplies to the Bahamas and to Haiti after Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Said Bahamas Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe of the aid “This organization led by example mobilizing immediately to bring relief to our people who are in need. It is our hope that other organizations will follow the example set by the (Washington Football team).”
Promoting charitable contributions through the team and the Washington Charitable Foundation is just part of how Daniel Snyder gives back to the community. Personally, he supports a number of causes, including the Children’s National Hospital and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). He sits on the board of the Children’s National Hospital Foundation and his support helped make the hospital’s Snyder Family Emergency Medicine and Trauma Center possible. In 2014, Snyder and his wife, Tanya, were given the Charles B. Wang International Children’s Award at the NCMEC’s for their generous and continued support.
The Synders are also long-time supporters of Youth for Tomorrow, an organization founded by Joe Gibbs, former Redskins head coach and Pro Football Hall of Famer. That organization gave Snyder its Distinguished Leader Award in 2010.
In 2020, Snyder donated $250,000 to support a grass roots effort to help raise awareness about issues of social injustice. This year, he also helped to set up field testing for COVID-19 in Maryland’s Prince George’s County and donated $100,000 to the Capital Area Food Bank to help the increasing number of people in the area who are food insecure due to the pandemic.
About Dan Snyder
Dan Snyder grew up in the Washington DC area. One of the highlights of his youth was attending Washington professional football games with his father. He attended a private preparatory school in England and the University of Maryland in College Park. He dropped out of college to start his own charter airline business, a business he claims to have netted him more than $1 million while he was working out of his parent’s spare bedroom with a couple of extra phone lines.
Snyder made his fortune as the founder, chairman and CEO of Snyder Communications, Inc., a company he started in 1989 with his sister to provide wallboard advertising. When the company went public in 1996, Snyder became, at 32, the youngest CEO ever of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. When he sold the company in 2000, it was estimated to be worth $2 billion.
Today, football is Snyder prime focus. In addition to his responsibilities as team owner, Snyder sits on six different NFL committees, including the digital media committee, the stadium committee and the Hall of Fame Committee. Separately, he is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Snyder and his wife, Tanya, a former fashion model, live in Potomac, Maryland with their three children. “Forbes” magazine estimates Snyder’s net worth to be around $2.6 billion.