THE BUILT OF
A LEGACY
2008-2025
Europe, USA, Africa.
After 2008, Giving Back evolved from program to platform — a model of sustainable return. Its alumni began empowering social and humanitarian organizations that carried the same DNA of community uplift.
What began as one scholarship has become a system of return — a community of champions powering more than 50 organizations in education, health, gender equality, and youth inclusion. UN Women, grow academy, Salvation Army, Empire des enfants and many more social champions became beneficiaries and partners that showed the way.
Over one million lives have been touched through programs built on a single rule: Every act of impact must give back, and embrace the original motto: Never Forget Where You Come From.
Giving Back disrupted how sports philanthropy works. It turned giving into design: circular, measurable, human. Legacy here is what you keep in motion.
1995-2015
Paris. Newark. Dakar. Los Angeles.
Each summer, small groups from France crossed the ocean to join U.S. camps and academic programs, blending sport and study long before “student-athlete pathways” became a concept. By the mid-2000s, the initiative had expanded into a global network, and academies in Africa.
In 2005, Giving Back became the backbone of Stoneridge Prep, turning the small Simi Valley private school into a powerhouse, ranked top 15 in the US, producing over 40 division I college players and, in the process, future NBA players, Hamady N'diaye and 2x All star Nikola Vucevic.
In 2007, came the the breakthrough: Giving Back was the African face of adidas Nations — the global platform uniting the best under-18 players on the planet.
For nearly a decade, Babacar Sy led adidas Nations Africa, shaping the journeys of names that would define international basketball: Serge Ibaka, Clint Capela, Guerschon Yabusele, Amath M’Baye, and many more.
More than 200 scholarships were created for young talents from Europe and Africa, sending them to high schools and NCAA universities. Over 70 % went professional, 70 % earned degrees, and 90 % came back to mentor the next wave. Then came the breakthrough.
Those athletes helped built academies & programs in Paris, Las Vegas, Dakar, Bamako, Ouagadougou, Kinshasa, etc. They funded camps, trained youth, and inspired thousands. They turned competition into transmission and legacy.
DISRUPTING THE GAME
1995-2015
Babacar Sy started with international camps, training young players at the YMCA in Newark, teaching them discipline, English, and basketball.Each summer, small groups from France crossed the ocean to join U.S. camps and academic programs, blending sport and study long before “student-athlete pathways” became a concept.
By the mid-2000s, the initiative had expanded into a global network, and academies in Africa.More than 200 scholarships were created for young talents from Europe and Africa, sending them to high schools and NCAA universities.
Over 70 % went professional, 70 % earned degrees, and 90 % came back to mentor the next wave. Then came the breakthrough.In 2005,
Giving Back became the backbone of Stoneridge Prep, turning the small Simi Valley private school into a national powerhouse, ranked top 15 in the US, producing in the process future NBA players, Hamady N'diaye and 2x All star Nikola Vucevic. In 2007, came the the breakthroug: Giving Back was the African face of adidas Nations — the global platform uniting the best under-18 players on the planet.
For nearly a decade, Babacar Sy led adidas Nations Africa, shaping the journeys of names that would define international basketball: Serge Ibaka, Clint Capela, Guerschon Yabusele, Amath M’Baye, and many more.But the real victory wasn’t medals or contracts. It was the return.
Those athletes built academies in Dakar, Bamako, Abidjan.They funded camps, trained youth, and inspired thousands.They turned competition into transmission — proving that sport can be education, and education can be legacy.
DISRUPTING THE GAME
NEVER FORGET WHERE YOU COME FROM
OUR JOURNEY
NEVER FORGET
WHERE YOU
COME FROM
100+ ATHLETES. 50+ SOCIAL PROJECTS.
IT BEGAN WITH
A PROMISE
1995.
Paris, France.
Babacar Sy, a college student and basketball player loses his sister, a young woman who had dedicated her studies to building bridges between generations of farmers in Africa, ensuring that the knowledge of the elders would never disappear.
She left behind her thesis, her dream, and her unfinished project. To honor her, Babacar chose basketball, the language he knew best, as his way to bring her work alive. And from that moment, Giving Back was born.
From the courts of Paris, the project grew into a mentoring system connecting promising young athletes with universities, coaches, in the US, thanks to a series of camps in at the Newark YMCA in New Jersey.
Each beneficiary was bound by a moral contract — to come back, to help the next, to keep the circle alive, with one simple motto: Never Forget Where You Come From.
DISRUPTING
THE GAME
1995-2015
Babacar Sy started with international camps, training young players at the YMCA in Newark, teaching them discipline, English, and basketball.
Each summer, small groups from Francecrossed the ocean to join U.S. camps and academic programs, blending sport and study long before “student-athlete pathways” became a concept. By the mid-2000s, the initiative had expanded into a global network, and academies in Africa.
More than 200 scholarships were created for young talents from Europe and Africa, sending them to high schools and NCAA universities.
Over 70 % went professional, 70 % earned degrees, and 90 % came back to mentor the next wave. Then came the breakthrough.
In 2005, Giving Back became the backbone of Stoneridge Prep, turning the small Simi Valley private school into a powerhouse, ranked top 15 in the US, producing in the process future NBA players, Hamady N'diaye and 2x All star Nikola Vucevic.
In 2007, came the the breakthroug: Giving Back was the African face of adidas Nations — the global platform uniting the best under-18 players on the planet. For nearly a decade, Babacar Sy led adidas Nations Africa, shaping the journeys of names that would define international basketball: Serge Ibaka, Clint Capela, Guerschon Yabusele, Amath M’Baye, and many more.
But the real victory wasn’t medals or contracts. It was the return.
Those athletes built academies in Dakar, Bamako, Abidjan.
They funded camps, trained youth, and inspired thousands.
They turned competition into transmission — proving that sport can be education, and education can be legacy.
Giving Back helped generations of world-class champions through sports and education.
They now serve as ambassadors for partnered social organizations, on one condition:
every beneficiary vows to embrace the essence of the movement through its powerful motto: 'Never forget where you come from'.
DECADES OF LEGACY
200 student-athletes from 20 countries, 4 continents, getting full scholarships to study in the U.S. 70% graduated with a college degree
Over 70% became professionals in sports & other fields such as finance, management, entrepreneurship, etc.
Most honored their moral contract to come back ans serve as their community, and keep the legacy alive
DISRUPTING
THE GAME
Marquette University basketball standout and graduate Ousmane Barro
1995-2015
Paris. Newark. Dakar. Los Angeles.
Each summer, small groups from France crossed the ocean to join U.S. camps and academic programs, blending sport and study long before “student-athlete pathways” became a concept. By the mid-2000s, the initiative had expanded into a global network, and academies in Africa.
In 2005, Giving Back became the backbone of Stoneridge Prep, turning the small Simi Valley private school into a powerhouse, ranked top 15 in the US, producing over 40 division I college players and, in the process, future NBA players, Hamady N'diaye and 2x All star Nikola Vucevic.
In 2007, came the the breakthrough: Giving Back was the African face of adidas Nations — the global platform uniting the best under-18 players on the planet.
For nearly a decade, Babacar Sy led adidas Nations Africa, shaping the journeys of names that would define international basketball: Serge Ibaka, Clint Capela, Guerschon Yabusele, Amath M’Baye, and many more.
More than 200 scholarships were created for young talents from Europe and Africa, sending them to high schools and NCAA universities. Over 70 % went professional, 70 % earned degrees, and 90 % came back to mentor the next wave. Then came the breakthrough.
Those athletes helped built academies & programs in Paris, Las Vegas, Dakar, Bamako, Ouagadougou, Kinshasa, etc. They funded camps, trained youth, and inspired thousands. They turned competition into transmission and legacy.
THE BUILT
OF A LEGACY
Marquette University basketball standout and graduate Ousmane Barro
2008-2025
Europe, USA, Africa.
After 2008, Giving Back evolved from program to platform, a model of sustainable return. Its alumni began empowering social and humanitarian organizations that carried the same DNA of community uplift.
What began as one scholarship has become a system of return, a community of champions powering more than 50 organizations in education, health, gender equality, and youth inclusion. UN Women, grow academy, Salvation Army, Empire des enfants and many more social champions became beneficiaries and partners that showed the way.
Over one million lives have been touched through programs built on a single rule: Every act of impact must give back, and embrace the original motto: Never Forget Where You Come From.
Giving Back disrupted how sports philanthropy works. It turned giving into design: circular, measurable, human. Legacy here is what you keep in motion.
IT BEGAN WITH
A PROMISE
Marquette University basketball standout and graduate Ousmane Barro
Paris, 1995.
Babacar Sy, a college student and basketball player loses his sister, a young woman who had dedicated her studies to building bridges between generations of farmers in Africa, ensuring that the knowledge of the elders would never disappear.
She left behind her thesis, her dream, and her unfinished project. To honor her, Babacar chose basketball, the language he knew best, as his way to bring her work alive. And from that moment, Giving Back was born.
From the courts of Paris, the project grew into a mentoring system connecting promising young athletes with universities, coaches, in the US, thanks to a series of camps in at the Newark YMCA in New Jersey.
Each beneficiary was bound by a moral contract — to come back, to help the next, to keep the circle alive, with one simple motto: Never Forget Where You Come From.