Impact
Where the money goes, and who it is for.
We would rather explain the work plainly than inflate a dashboard. This page is for donors, Google reviewers, and families who want to know what a gift actually does in Reseda.
The problem we are built to solve
Martial arts look inexpensive from the outside — a kid in shorts on a mat. In practice, a competitive season stacks costs: monthly training, a gi that shrinks, wrestling shoes, headgear, tournament registrations every few weeks, gasoline across Los Angeles County, and hotels when an event is not local. A household that can pay in September often cannot pay in January. The child does not lose talent between those months. The child loses access.
San Fernando Valley families are not abstract. They live near the Reseda training floor. They work shifts that do not match a 7:30 p.m. practice. They have more than one child. When money gets tight, the sport is the first “extra” to cut, even if it was the one structure keeping a teenager in a room with a coach instead of on the street.
New Era Project exists so that cut is not automatic. A gift buys time on the mat, gear that fits, and a way to reach the competition the athlete already trained for.
How we spend charitable dollars
We use gifts for four buckets, in this order of typical urgency:
- Keep training going. Cover a defined period of academy fees for a child who would otherwise be pulled from class. The charity pays a need; it does not list consumer prices on this site.
- Put usable gear on the athlete. Uniforms and protective equipment are not merch. A wrestler without shoes or a BJJ athlete without a gi cannot practice the sport we claim to support.
- Get them to the event. Registration, transportation, and lodging. A season of practice that never reaches a sanctioned mat is unfinished work.
- Hold the year together. Short-term emergency aid when a parent’s hours are cut or a bill lands in the middle of a competition cycle.
We also spend coach time on free sessions for competitors and parents. That time is a program cost, not a product. It exists so travel money is not wasted on an athlete who arrives unprepared, and so parents do not become the loudest problem in the gym.
We do not publish made-up “lives changed” counters. When we have audited totals — dollars granted, athletes helped, events reached — they will appear here with a date. Until then, judge us by whether a specific child stayed in the room.
Who is in the charitable class
Youth athletes in wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and mixed martial arts, primarily from Reseda and nearby Valley communities. We look for kids who show up, who compete or are preparing to compete, and whose families have a documented cost barrier. A child does not need to be a champion. A child needs to be in the sport for the right reasons and blocked by money rather than by lack of interest.
USA Wrestling charter status for the club matters for impact because it places athletes on a recognized competition map. It is not a trophy we wave for its own sake. It is how a Valley kid gets into events that count.
What we will not do with gifts
We will not use this site to sell memberships. We will not treat a donation as a fee for a private lesson. We will not run third-party ads. We will not send donor traffic into an affiliate store. We will not claim a boarding university of sport as if the buildings were already standing. The vision is real; the current program is the athlete fund, the coach sessions, and the youth teams on the Reseda floor.
If a donor needs a letter for a workplace match, we will write it. If a grantmaker needs a budget line, we will provide one for the project they are funding. Transparency is slower than slogans and more useful to Google Ad Grants reviewers who asked us to show that this is a nonprofit with charitable activities, not a gym with a banner.