Bonito Foundation: Amplifying football’s potential for social good

The foundation is the brainchild of Per Sandström, a seasoned entrepreneur and football enthusiast with 25 years of experience running a digital agency. Sandström’s journey toward creating Bonito began after reading Radical Football by Steve Fleming. Inspired by the book's vision for how football could be a force for positive societal change, Sandström was determined to bring this philosophy to life. As a youth football coach, he had witnessed firsthand the game’s impact on young players, but he also saw its untapped potential to drive community transformation.

His expertise lay in technology and business, but he needed a partner with deep roots in the sport-for-good sector. A chance encounter on a freelancers’ Slack channel in Sweden connected Sandström with Jamie Elovsson, a veteran in sport-for-development with experience at the UN, Johan Cruyff Institute, and beyond and also a passionate football fan. A coffee meeting turned into a shared mission, and together they navigated the bureaucratic hurdles of launching a foundation. On November 5, their vision became a reality when the Bonito Foundation officially received recognition from Swedish authorities.

The Bonito.Football Platform

At its core, the platform is an editorial website and a community. The editorial website amplifies voices and stories from the global football-for-good sector, from Premier League clubs to grassroots NGOs, serving as a hub for showcasing how football can drive positive change. With a growing audience of stakeholders from across the football ecosystem, Bonito is carving out a space where stories of impact, innovation, and inclusion take center stage.

The community space will bring together the people, workers, and volunteers in the football-for-good sector - the unsung heroes of football - to meet and learn from one another.

But Bonito’s ambitions extend far beyond storytelling. Sandström and Elovsson share a bold vision: to empower every grassroots football coach to see themselves as a social impact practitioner. Football coaches often see themselves as technicians, focused on teaching skills and tactics. Yet their influence extends well beyond the pitch, shaping the lives and values of young people in profound ways.

Bridging the Gap Between Tactics and Social Good

The football-for-good movement has grown exponentially in recent years, leveraging sport to tackle pressing issues such as climate change, health disparities, education, gender inequality, and community cohesion. At the heart of this movement are grassroots football coaches—the frontline workers of social impact in sport. However, many coaches remain unaware of their potential to drive change, focusing solely on the technical aspects of the game.

The Bonito Foundation aims to close this gap. Through research and consultation, the foundation has identified a critical need to equip grassroots coaches with the tools and awareness to embed social impact into their work. By doing so, the foundation envisions a future where the principles of sport-for-good are seamlessly integrated into the DNA of grassroots coaching.

To achieve this, Bonito will develop and evolve its online community platform tailored to grassroots coaches worldwide. This initiative will focus on:

• Capacity Building and Personal Development: Providing training, resources, and support to help coaches understand their potential as changemakers
• Networking Opportunities: Connecting coaches with organizations and individuals in the sport-for-good sector to foster collaboration and shared learning.
• Targeted Content: Offering practical tools, stories, and case studies to inspire coaches and guide their journey from technician to practitioner.

Reimagining the Role of Coaches

“Grassroots football coaches are uniquely positioned to create lasting social impact. On every continent, from small rural villages to big cities, coaches are more than just technical instructors; they are mentors, role models, and community leaders. I grew up a tennis player and when I look back at my own formative years, my biggest issue was the lack of a male role model. My only male role model was a coach living on a small Caribbean island miles away. Despite that distance and despite having not seen him in person for 20 years, I still lean on him to this day for advice on everything from fatherhood to my return of serve!  A good coach can make the difference in a young person's life for years to come”.-Jamie Elovsson

“Imagine a world where every grassroots coach is equipped to incorporate social impact into their sessions intentionally. In the short term, this would foster better youth engagement and stronger community connections. Over time, it could lead to healthier, more socially conscious young people and, ultimately, sustainable community-wide change”- Per Sandström

Looking Ahead

The launch of the Bonito Foundation and Bonito.Football marks an exciting new chapter in the sport-for-good movement. With its editorial platform already amplifying voices from around the globe, and its upcoming community platform set to empower grassroots coaches, Bonito is poised to drive meaningful change in football and beyond.

Sandström and Elovsson's journey from a chance meeting to co-founders of a visionary foundation underscores the power of collaboration and shared purpose. Their work is a reminder that football’s greatest potential lies not just in the goals scored on the pitch but in the lives transformed off it.

As Bonito looks to the future, it invites the global football community—coaches, clubs, organizations, and fans alike—to join in its mission.

Elovsson: “We want to collaborate- we are in this to do good things with good people so I would invite anyone who wants to work together to just take a chance coffee with us- who knows what can start from that- we are proof of that”.

For more information and to explore Bonito, visit Bonito.Football and join the Bonito community today!