Chris Helfrich ’99, who has worked in the nonprofit world for years, realizes how much he profited from a Loomis Chaffee education. Even if it took him some time to figure that out. 

“I don’t think it really hit me until after I was gone, but this idea of being your best self for the common good, as I try to make sense of what motivates me and what drives me, I do go back to that often,” Chris says. “Reaching my potential and, by doing so, being a help to others, has been a throughline in my career. And I trace it to what I learned at Loomis, even if I didn’t absorb it until five, 10 years later.” 

As big an inspiration as Loomis Chaffee might have been, so too were his parents. In addition to having four biological children (Chris; Dan ’94; Tim ’96, who taught and coached boys soccer at Loomis from 2016–2020; and Brian ’03), the Helfriches adopted three other children in their teens. “To see their sacrifices was pretty amazing and made a huge impact on me,” Chris says. “They put everything on the line to make sure everyone had what they needed.” Chris was a junior at Loomis Chaffee when the first two adopted siblings joined the family. The third, Spencer Ford ’03, was and is Brian’s best friend. Chris was in college at the time Spencer was adopted. 

Now Chris, as president and chief executive officer of Stephen and Ayesha Curry’s foundation — Eat. Learn. Play. — is trying, in the mold of his parents, to help kids, in this case thousands who live in Oakland, Calif. In 2018 Stephen Curry, the all-time career leader in three-point shots in the NBA and a four-time NBA champion; and his wife, Ayesha, an actress and entrepreneur, started Eat. Learn. Play. and asked Chris to run the foundation.  

Chris and Mr. Curry met when Chris was director of the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets, a campaign to raise awareness and funding to fight malaria, a leading cause of death among children in Africa. Chris was director from 2011 to 2016. Chris recruited Mr. Curry to become an ambassador for the campaign, and the two traveled together to refugee camps in Tanzania for a week in the summer of 2013.  

“These were some tough places, and to see Stephen not complain a single time in a week — even though the conditions, no electricity, no running water, the food — not what we’re used to ... and he didn't complain once,” Chris remembers. “And then to see the way he treats everyone he comes across with grace and generosity, this guy is just different. You get to know people in those situations.” 

Nothing But Nets, which started as a way to deliver bed nets, continued to grow under Chris’s leadership. Chris and Mr. Curry never lost touch, and in 2018 Mr. Curry reached out seeking Chris’s help with a vision for a foundation to help Oakland kids. 

“A couple of conversations in their home, around the dinner table, turned into them asking me and me immediately accepting this opportunity to build and lead this not-yet-formed foundation,” Chris says. 

Oakland is the Currys’ adopted hometown. It is where Steph began his NBA career with the Golden State Warriors. The team played there until 2019 when the Warriors moved to San Francisco.  

The Currys said they saw the need of the children of Oakland — about 12 percent of families had income below the poverty level in 2024, according to city data. Eat. Learn. Play. is living up to its name. Chris says it has raised and invested nearly $100 million into Oakland since its launch in July of 2019, distributed more than 25 million meals to Oakland students and families, remodeled schoolyards at 24 Oakland elementary schools, helped increase middle school sports participation 300 percent since 2021, provided 7,000 students with one-on-one professional literacy tutoring, and distributed one million new, culturally affirming books. The foundation has earned the highest rating, four stars, from the nonprofit Charity Navigator, which rates “the cost-effectiveness and overall health of a charity’s programs.” 

“From the earliest days around their dinner table, the Currys agreed to forever fund all the overhead costs, so every dollar we raise goes back out to the community,” Chris says.  

Chris’s nonprofit career also has included stints as CEO of Starlight Children’s Foundation, whose mission is to deliver happiness to seriously ill kids through entertainment; and director of development and marketing for Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization. Along the journey, he says, he has learned many skills that have helped with the Currys’ foundation, one of the biggest being simply listening. “It is not so much, ‘Here’s what you need,’” Chris says. “‘Tell us what you need, and we will find the most impactful ways working with the community to bring that to life.’” 

While being interviewed for this story, Chris was on his way to a meeting with Mr. Curry, who recently ended a longtime agreement with Under Armour and has not picked his next brand. In the itnerim, he has worn sneakers by various brands, including Nike, Adidas, and Reebok, paying homage to the likes of NBA greats Shaquille O’Neill, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant, and uplifting the women’s game by wearing signature sneakers of WNBA stars Sabrina Ionescu and A’ja Wilson. Mr. Curry has saved all the sneakers he has worn the past four months, Chris says. This meeting was about auctioning them off for the benefit of Eat. Learn. Play.  

All of this was Mr. Curry’s idea, Chris says. “For him, everything is an opportunity to uplift others, support others. He’s just built differently.” 

The same might be said of Chris. 

“I’ve thought about over the years squaring my privilege with the job I have now,” Chris says. “I was privileged to have the experience of being a Loomis Chaffee student, and now we are focused on serving a generation of kids in Oakland who don't have access to the opportunities I did. Those Oakland kids deserve the best, and for me, the best is what I had at Loomis, and even though we cannot replicate it for 35,000 kids, that is a major motivator for me.” 

Chris and his wife, Kate Durant Helfrich ’99, with whom he went to Prom, have three children. Like the rest of the Helfrich family, the kids are soccer players. The boys varsity soccer field at Loomis is named after the family and was dedicated in 2015.  

The boys varsity coach at the time, Charlie Bour, told the crowd at the dedication, "During the Helfrich years, Dan, Tim, Crick [Chris’ nickname], Brian, and Spencer logged, by my estimate, a combined 1,200 hours on this field. ... Now that is impressive! Perhaps even more impressive is that their parents, Tom and Mary Sue, stood on the sidelines cheering for Loomis in at least 120 games. What dedication!"   

Chris grew up rooting for UConn teams, and he remains a dedicated Huskies fan. Like many UConn supporters, he reveled in the “Nothing But Net” moment on March 29, when freshman Braylon Mullins hit a 35-foot shot with less than a second on the clock to send the UConn men’s basketball team to the Final Four. Even though Chris now lives on the West Coast, New England remains near and dear for many reasons.