The Ravens' mission statement is to win football games, serve our fans, and be a positive force in the community. On Tuesday, that third core principle was recognized on a global stage.
The Ravens are ESPN's 2026 Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year. The annual award, given to the best of all teams in all leagues, was presented to the organization at Tuesday night's ESPY Awards.
Per ESPN, the Ravens were honored because of their long-term investment aligning ownership, players, staff, alumni, nonprofit partners and fans around building "one of the most comprehensive youth development platforms in professional sports, leveraging the power of football to create educational opportunities, strengthen communities and support young people at every stage of their development."
"It's an incredible honor," said Heather Darney, the Ravens' vice president of community relations and executive director of Ravens Foundation.
"We certainly don't do it for the recognition, but I think it's important that we be a leader. The fact that ESPN is recognizing us as a leader in this space is remarkable and certainly something we're very proud of."
Darney has worked for the Ravens for nearly 15 years. She knows how the team's philanthropy started with the Modell family and has seen it carried on and grown by Ravens Owner Steve Bisciotti as well as Team Presidents Dick Cass and Sashi Brown.
"It has always been part of who the Ravens' identity," Darney said. "When you have a team like this, and you know how important and special its connection with the city and community is, we have an obligation to step up and help out."
The Ravens have built community support that begins in childhood and extends through college and career readiness.
Through the Ravens Bookmobile program, more than 1.3 million books have been distributed to children across Maryland. Partnerships addressing food insecurity have helped provide hundreds of thousands of meals to students and families in need.
In 2025, the organization opened the Baltimore Ravens Boys & Girls Club at Hilton Recreation Center through a $20 million investment from the Ravens and the Bisciotti Family Foundation, creating a state-of-the-art community hub serving hundreds of youths through academic support, mentorship, wellness programming and athletics.
The Ravens have also committed $30 million over 10 years to organizations focused on college access and career readiness. That included a $20 million investment into College Track, a national comprehensive college completion program that makes a 10-year commitment to students from underserved communities who seek to become the first in their families to earn a bachelor's degree.
College Track launched a Baltimore site in March. The Ravens and Ozzie Newsome Scholarship programs have invested $6 million to help Maryland students pursue higher education.
For Darney, some of the most rewarding moments are the lower profile ones, like seeing coaches, players or staff members reading to kids during Read Across America Week, or watching the team's rookies interact with their new community during a recent beautification project at Patterson Park.
But she also takes great fulfillment from helping land several monumental multi-year projects, such as the launch of the Boys & Girls Club and College Track Center.
"Recently, we've really doubled down," Darney said. "These really substantial initiatives show we're not just doing a little bit here and there. I think we've taken, even just in the investment level, a really big step in that commitment to our community. To see all that come to life is pretty cool."
Darney's dedicated community relations staff also included Director of Community Relations Kelly Tallant, Community Relations Manager Drew Meyer, and former Community Relations Senior Manager Briana Vaughn, who is now with the U.S. Soccer Federation.
