In order to honor and encourage philanthropy, especially in these most difficult of times, the prestigious Sport Business Awards have been expanded to include the Coronavirus Innovation Awards. Outstanding work will be recognized in the fields of Protection, Compassion, and Communication. Since the turn of the millennium, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has steadily increased its humanitarian efforts around the world. In 2018, the ITTF launched the ITTF Foundation, an agency completely dedicated to using table tennis to promote humanitarian progress around the world. Now, its efforts have been recognized with Sport Business Awards nominations. The first nomination reflects the creativity required to preserve tradition in unpredictable times. World Table Tennis Day (WTTD), held every April 6th, is exactly what the name suggests: a worldwide celebration of our sport. This year, however, the COVID-19 pandemic threw a proverbial spanner in the works. Undeterred, the ITTF Foundation set out to make the most of the situation, challenging players from around the world to film themselves playing table tennis in fun and creative ways. The best shots were then edited together to make the world's longest virtual rally, uniting players in a collaborative effort when it was not physically possible to gather. Julia Tappendorf, Global Programmes and Operations Coordinator for the ITTF Foundation, reflects on the honor. "Watching all the videos from passionate players made me realize again that table tennis and its strong family can work small wonders," said Tappendorf. "People from 171 countries and territories invited us into their homes, demonstrating fun, unity and solidarity through table tennis. The nomination for this matter of being there for each other flatters us." This clever celebration of unity in the age of social distancing earned the ITTF Foundation a nomination from Sport Business Awards in the Communication category, but this was not their only nod. The Foundation was also recognized in the field of Compassion, thanks to a campaign dubbed #TableTennisUnited. This humanitarian hashtag has also served to unite the global table tennis community, but in quite a different way. Drawing on the star power of some of the world's top players, #TableTennisUnited has elicited over $315,000 in donations for those hardest hit by the pandemic. Emergency relief shipments of "masks, disinfectants, protective suits, hygiene articles, necessities, etc." have been distributed to communities around the world, thanks to this display of coordinated compassion. While 2020 may be dominated by news of the pandemic, the continued positive efforts of the ITTF Foundation in the face of such adversity provide substantive evidence that humanity may just be worth saving after all.

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