Sandra and Jalen Brunson launch foundation to support youth opportunity

Sandra Brunson and Jalen Brunson co-founded the Second Round Foundation in 2022, building a New Jersey nonprofit around the NBA guard’s 33rd pick in the draft and the family story behind its name. The organization says it is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) public charity, and Sandra Brunson is listed as its co-founder and chief financial officer.

The foundation says its mission is to empower young people by providing educational opportunities, access to sports, healthy nutrition and other critical resources. Its broader aim is to create equity through education, sport and community, turning the Brunsons’ personal origin story into a public program for children and teenagers.

Sandra Brunson has described that origin in practical terms, not sentimental ones. In a CBS Mornings interview, she said leadership means understanding that everyone on a team has a job to do and that teammates need to feel comfortable in their roles and believe in their roles. She also said she texts Jalen Brunson words of encouragement before games and has kept one lesson at the center of the family’s approach: “it’s not what happens, it’s how you respond.”

That message fits the arc of Jalen Brunson’s rise from the second round to the New York Knicks and into a larger legacy that reaches beyond basketball. The foundation has been framed as part of that effort, with an emphasis on underprivileged communities and youth leadership development rather than celebrity branding alone.

The family’s approach is already embedded in the foundation’s public identity. Sandra Brunson helped establish the organization around a vision centered on expanding access, opportunity and equity for young people, and the foundation’s own mission statement says it plants seeds for those goals through education, sport and community.

A 2025 Forbes write-up described the foundation as designed to create equal opportunities for teens and children while supporting education, youth sports and community outreach. In that framing, the Brunsons’ second-round story is not simply a draft-night reference. It is the foundation’s blueprint for how discipline, role acceptance and response to pressure can be translated into real support for the next generation.