The Salt Lake Tribune did an analysis of charities that are run by NBA players and found a wide range of problems. The Tribune reviewed the Form 990′s filed by 89 charities and determined that of the $31 million raised between 2005 and 2007, only around $14 million actually reached needy causes.

As we have written many times, you should always find out where the money goes when you donate to a charity. Philanthropic watchdog groups recommend finding a charity where at minimum of 65 cents on the dollar goes toward charitable programs, with the remaining 35 cents going to overhead. Even this seems low to me. I have seen charities with a 90/10 or better ratio. The average NBA player foundation saw a mere 51 cents go to charitable causes.

I commend these players for setting up the foundations and charities, but with the high overhead, perhaps it would be more beneficial to partner with an existing charity, donate money to them, and become a spokesperson for them (for free, of course – no Nike $$$ for this endorsement.)

For the full special report, see: NBA player charities often a losing game
For individual player foundation information, visit: NBA Player Charities

Tags: charitable donations, charity, NBA

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 10:09 pm and is filed under In the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.