Bucks' Jrue Holiday, Wife Lauren Donate $1M to Black-Led Nonprofits, Businesses

Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday and his wife, former United States women's national soccer team player Lauren Holiday, are donating $1 million to Black-owned businesses and Black-led nonprofit organizations.

The Holidays told Marc Stein of the New York Times that they will be adding the funds to the JLH Impact Fund, which was founded last year to help Black businesses and nonprofits. Jrue Holiday donated $5.3 million of his 2019-20 salary to start the fund.

Jrue said launching a way to help the Black community helped provide him motivation to return to the floor during the NBA bubble.

“I’m not going to lie: I didn’t really want to go to the bubble,” Jrue Holiday said. “It didn’t feel like it was the time for basketball. My wife was pregnant. I just felt like me leaving my family wasn’t the best for my family. I also wanted to go out and protest, but I couldn’t do that because I had to protect my family from COVID. I felt like I needed something to motivate me to go.”

The fund launched with organizations in New Orleans (Jrue's team at the time), Indianapolis (Lauren's hometown) and Los Angeles (Jrue's hometown) receiving benefits. Milwaukee will be added as the fourth city with this new $1 million infusion.

Jrue Holiday told Andrew Lopez of ESPN that he felt he and his family were not involved enough in their communities and sought to use those funds to find a way to help. He said the nationwide protests following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor helped provide a "kick in the pants," and Lauren encouraged the start of the fund.