Advice for Starting a Nonprofit in Your Gym

Kerri Goodrich of Performance Initiatives offers tips for gym owners interested in establishing a gym-based nonprofit. 

Kerri Goodrich has been running Performance Initiatives—a nonprofit that teaches weightlifting to underserved youth from age seven until college—since 2005. In the 19 years it’s been open, Performance Initiatives has trained more than 2,000 kids and teens.

While the property and building—the home of CrossFit Savannah—where Kerri runs the nonprofit was donated to Performance Initiatives in early 2024, Kerri still has to work hard to raise money to pay for coaches, transportation, travel expenses, and the many administrative tasks associated with running a successful nonprofit.

Kerri said she’s often asked for advice from people interested in running a nonprofit out of their gym, and she frequently works with other coaches to help them launch their programs. 

“My advice to them is just start small,” she said.

‘We've been doing it for a long time. We grew really fast and my passion was never to leave a kid behind,” she said. 

While the rapid growth was important because of the deep need in her community, Kerri said it’s not something she would recommend to others. 

“We had to double-time our efforts, but not every gym owner can do that,” she said.

For example, if you want to work with kids, Kerri suggests applying for a grant with enough funding for a 12-week program where you’ll train 10 kids at a time. 

“Do that successfully for one year and then add on to it,” Kerri said. 

When you start off this way you can run your business and spend time with your family without getting overwhelmed or burnt out. It’s during this time, Kerri said, that you can start to prove your track record and discover what works and what doesn’t. 

“You can figure out what's working smoothly, where you need to make adjustments, and what you want to do to add value to the program,” Kerri said. 

The other thing Kerri did when she was starting out was use the resources in her neighborhood to amplify her services. She worked with a grandmother in the community to provide meals for the kids in the afternoon, and then when the program got bigger Performance Initiatives collaborated with America's Second Harvest (now called Feeding America) for meals. 

Once she became well established, Kerri was able to add tutors to help kids with their schoolwork as well as counseling programs to help connect the kids and their families to mental health services. However, she advises that people starting a nonprofit stick to one core offering or focus, and then build on that as the program becomes more established. 

Another thing to remember, especially if you have an organization that works with children, is that you may not be able to run your adult CrossFit or group exercise programs at the same time as the kids’ programs if you want to be in compliance with the US Center for SafeSport, a nonprofit dedicated to ending sexual abuse in youth sports.

“There are no adults who are not SafeSport or background checked in the building at the same time as the programs,” Kerri said, a precaution designed to ensure safety for the kids in her program. 

The final thing to remember is that with any nonprofit comes fundraising. 

“We do a lot of fundraisers,” Kerri said. They include an annual stand up for kids program where local celebrities perform comedy skits and go out in the community and raise money.

“We write grants and we have donations from private foundations that we’ve built relationships with. And then there are some funders who only support the elite level athletes for their travel,” she said.

If you start small and build your fundraising network as you grow, you’ll be well prepared to take on new challenges as the organization grows, and serve your community for years to come.

About Author, Hilary Achauer

Hilary is a renowned fitness business writer, marketing content writer, and journalist. She’s written content for start-ups, entrepreneurs, executive coaches, wellness providers, gyms, and CrossFit. Her focus is always on telling the best story with a clear, compelling style and being able to engage readers, bring in new customers, or build an audience.