As the 20-season owner of one of the world’s most valuable sports teams, Dan Snyder has shown himself to be not only a shrewd businessman who has propelled his Washington Football Team franchise into the upper ranks of NFL marketing and business organizations but perhaps even more so a philanthropist dedicated to helping improve his community through his charitable foundation and humanitarian efforts.
As a child, Dan frequently attended Washington Football Team games with his father. After enjoying success as the founder, chairman, and CEO of the globally operating Snyder Communications (and also as the youngest CEO of a New York Stock Exchange-listed company), Dan was able to purchase his favorite childhood football team in 1999. One of the first actions he took as team owner was to create the Washington Charitable Foundation. It was through this organization that Dan, with the Washington Football Team and its corporate and community partners, sought to make a positive and measurable impact on youth development in Washington, D.C., and the surrounding Maryland-Virginia region. To date, Dan Snyder’s Washington Charitable Foundation has held hundreds of in-school workshops and events to support children’s literacy development and expand the reach of youth health and wellness programs.
Snyder’s philanthropic activities haven’t been limited only to the Washington, D.C., area. In 2016, in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, Dan quickly coordinated and executed emergency supply deliveries to the Bahamas and Haiti. Similarly, after the 2004 tsunami that devastated parts of Indonesia and Thailand and 2005’s Hurricane Katrina that caused extreme damage and lasting hardship for numerous economically vulnerable communities, Dan provided substantial financial aid to rescue and relief efforts in both regions.
In addition to his disaster relief and charitable foundation work, as a member of the Children’s National Hospital Foundation Board of Directors, Dan provided the financial resources to establish the Snyder Family Emergency Medicine and Trauma Center, which greatly extended the capacity and treatment capability of the Children’s National Hospital. Further, Snyder provided funding for the development of the Dan Snyder and Family Communication Center at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which fields phone calls from around the nation from people responding to the Center’s missing children awareness campaigns.
Snyder is also a strong supporter of the military community. Through Washington Football, he created “Salute,” the team’s military appreciation club and the first program of its kind in the NFL to support and show appreciation for the military community. For a variety of related military appreciation and recognition events, the football team’s home stadium, FedExField, is reserved for pre-game parties, re-enlistment ceremonies, and a variety of other activities for military members. In a very specific display of appreciation, in February 2016 Daniel Snyder and the Gary Sinise Foundation collaborated to build an adapted smart home for Captain Luis Avila, a veteran and Washington Football fan who was paralyzed during one of his tours with the U.S. Army.
In addition to his engagement with the community and his dedication to charitable and philanthropic work, Dan Snyder is deeply involved in many areas of the National Football League’s operation. He serves on six NFL committees, including in his role as co-chair of the Digital Media Committee, and he is an active member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Board of Trustees. Concerning the operation and development of his Washington Football Team franchise, Dan has applied his years of business experience to develop its retail arm, opening several team stores in Maryland and Virginia that have propelled the team into the top ranks of NFL marketing and business organizations.
Committed to continually improving the Washington Football customer and fan experience, Snyder has invested more than $100 million into Landover, Maryland’s FedExField, installing high-speed escalators, 1,000 flat-screen televisions in common areas, larger end-zone screens so that fans can enjoy a clearer view of on-field action, stadium-wide Wi-Fi, new private luxury suites, and more stadium entry gates and parking to reduce congestion.
In 2012, in a display of commitment and dedication to the Commonwealth of Virginia, Snyder decided to keep the Washington Football team in Loudon County’s Inova Sports Performance Center at The Park, the training facility where the team had developed the performance of its athletes for many years. Since that time, Snyder and the team have focused on making continual improvements to the facility, including upgrades to the weight room, athletic training facility, hydrotherapy stations, media availability areas, and the in-house cafeteria. The Sports Performance Center has been central to the development of the 27 Washington Football players who made 53 Pro Bowl appearances over the years, nine of whom have been named All-Pro and five of whom have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
More about Dan Snyder on https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/redskins/daily/may99/26/skinsbid26.htm
