The Salvation Army calls on football fans across the country to help fill funding gap through NFL ‘Draft-A-Thon’

Football fans across the country are encouraged to participate April 23-25 in the NFL's "Draft-A-Thon," a three-day virtual fundraiser to support The Salvation Army and five other national nonprofits and their respective COVID-19 efforts. With more than 7,600 service locations, The Salvation Army is working directly in communities across the country to help the growing number of people in need during this pandemic, and it needs critical funding to ensure that services can continue to expand along with demand.

The Salvation Army, the nation's largest social service provider, provides basic needs for more than 23 million Americans each year, and as the impact of COVID-19 grows, that number is expected to increase. As the country has adapted to shelter-in-place and social-distancing guidelines, so have The Salvation Army's services. Since the outbreak, the organization has evolved feeding services, homeless shelters, care for senior citizens, child care, disaster relief efforts, and emotional and spiritual care to meet the needs of low-income and homeless families and individuals.

Hosted in conjunction with the 2020 NFL Draft, the "Draft-A-Thon" will be live-streamed on NFL social and digital platforms. It builds on the more than $50 million in COVID-19 relief already donated by the NFL. To galvanize support in local communities, all 32 NFL clubs have selected one or more of the six nonprofits' local branches to receive a portion of the funds raised.

The Salvation Army is proud to partner with nine teams to support specific needs in those communities: Baltimore Ravens, Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Seattle Seahawks. Follow along on social media to see specific programming updates from each of these cities in the coming days.

"The Salvation Army is honored to be one of the six beneficiaries of the NFL Draft-A-Thon," said Commissioner David Hudson. "It's the support of community-minded partners that allows us to meet need in His name with service locations in almost every ZIP code across the country. Many of our local corps have long-standing relationships with the fans, players and staff of these teams, and we are proud to have them as part of our Army as we face this new crisis together."

Donations can be made at NFL.com/relief and via a text-to-donate option. Fans of each team are encouraged to support the efforts of The Salvation Army in their local communities and share their stories of impact on social media using #DraftAThon. To learn more about The Salvation Army's COVID-19 relief efforts in your community, visit salarmy.us/covid-19.