The Boston Globe just published an excellent piece about athletes and the charities that they set up in order to try and give back to their communities. In it, Globe writer Callum Borchers talks about how a large number of charities started by athletes are mismanaged and give away very little money. And, one of the worst offenders of all time appears to be Alex Rodriguez.
Although a number of different athletes get called out for running unsuccessful charities, Borchers points out how, back in 2006, Rodriguez started the A-Rod Family Foundation and raised more than $400,000 by holding a celebrity poker tournament for charity with Jay-Z. But, when it was all said and done, the foundation used that money to make a $5,000 donation to the Shawn Carter Scholarship Fund, a $90 donation to a Little League team in Miami, and…well, that's it. In total, A-Rod's foundation gave away just 1 percent of what it brought in. And, the following year the IRS stripped the foundation of its tax-exempt status because it failed to submit the proper paperwork, thus ending the foundation's ability to take in charitable donations.
A-Rod declined to comment on the foundation when the Globe reached out to him, so maybe there's more to this story than what the Globe has told us. But, either way, this obviously doesn't paint a great picture of A-Rod as a philanthropist. What gives, dude? Not your charity, that's for damn sure.
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[via CBS Sports]
