Russell Wilson Charity Scam

[Shaw66]

2 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

I read an article years ago and they had these published from the bigger ones.

 

I need to start donating again to St. Judes hospital.  I believe 100% of proceeds go to the hospital.

100% goes to hospital, which means it pays the hospital's bills which means it pays the salary of the CEO which means your donation is paying administrative costs, including dinner meetigs, etc. etc.  Don't be fooled into thinking your money is going 100% to sick kids.  

[Augie]

2 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

I read an article years ago and they had these published from the bigger ones.

 

I need to start donating again to St. Judes hospital.  I believe 100% of proceeds go to the hospital.

 

My wife was on the Board at St Jude for years. She was on the ALSAC (fundraising) side. The hospital has its own independent board. You will be hard pressed to find a better charity to give to. Nothing is perfect, but between the cause and the efficient structure, I feel this is a no brainer and I never even question how much my wife gives every year. 

[plenzmd1]

11 hours ago, sullim4 said:

 

The linked article isn't very complete.  Here's a copy from Yahoo Sports which cites the original USA Today article, which does cite the salaries paid out: https://sports.yahoo.com/russell-wilsons-why-not-you-foundation-reportedly-spent-more-on-employee-salaries-than-charitable-activities-185532088.html

 

 

All I will add to the salary thing - the CEO of Northwest Harvest, one of the two major food banks in the Seattle area and one of the most well known charities in the region, is pulling in $175,000 according to Charity Navigator.  The salary itself is certainly comparable to Tarpley's, but size and scope of the two CEOs' workloads certainly cannot be compared.

 

It's entirely possible that everything is above board, but the response from Wilson's charity didn't refute any of the reporting.

Paying the guy who runs your Family Office $200K from your foundation instead of out of the funds in the Family Office is pure scam material, there is no ifs, ands or buts.   https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/family-offices.asp

 

 

Russ  has been a serial liar and scum bag from the time he made his first SuperBowl. Had his boys out there spreading rumors about his 1st  wife and Golden Tate. Lets just say the folks at St Catherine's here in Richmond have a vastly different story on his divorce and what happened. Not exactly Richmond's favorite son, and let me tell you the private prep school world he grew up in here in Richmond is very tight knit. I know it well. 

 

Bout the only positive thing i can say about him is he has kept his core  friends form Richmond close. Scott Pickett was his go to target WR in highshool, and is his business manager to this day.

 

Primer on Family Office btw

 

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/family-offices.asp

2 hours ago, Bob Jones said:

Aren't charity organizations like this required to file annual tax returns? And wouldn't the latter reveal all the answers to the questions you posed in this post? Wilson should make public those tax returns ASAP, to show that everything is on the up & up. If he doesn’t, or won't release those tax returns, then Houston, we've got a problem! LOL

they are public, and why the Yahoo article came out

[wppete]

2 hours ago, Airseven said:

Are the millions donated for Hamlin being tracked anywhere? Who specifically is controlling that money?

This is a great question. I haven’t seen anything about it. 

[boyst]

16 hours ago, Richard Noggin said:

That's an insane claim. Of course it's criminal when fraudsters use charitable causes to enrich themselves. But not even remotely true that "most any non profit is shady like this." 

most charities use other charities to do their work. when you get down the cord long enough you find a cyclical pattern of horse show trading amongst money doled out in grant money, graft, and nonsense fundraising.

 

everything from small hobby clubs and farmers markets to large scale PETA and Komen Foundation is part of this.

[Mister Defense]

Wilson is a has been, phony.

 

The  day of the trade last year I said it would go down as the worst trade in NFL history.  It is and will continue to be so.

 

Just listen to the guy talk, the cliches that spew from his mouth--a telling sign that he is now just a mirage, a done football player, and can care less. 

 

I think the Seahawks would have cut him last off season--instead, Denver gave them a king's bounty, sacrificing their present and future.

 

But you can't blame Wilson for taking the Broncos for all they are worth.  Humorous that a team could be so blind and ignorant.

 

But we can blame him that his charity is a sham, merely designed to support those he knows.

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by Mister Defense

[Royale with Cheese]

2 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

100% goes to hospital, which means it pays the hospital's bills which means it pays the salary of the CEO which means your donation is paying administrative costs, including dinner meetigs, etc. etc.  Don't be fooled into thinking your money is going 100% to sick kids.  

 

It does pay the bills because this hospital doesn't charge the parents.  Its paid for by the donations....I believe.

[Punching Bag]

Thread has been going for 2 days:

 

 

 

[Shaw66]

3 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

It does pay the bills because this hospital doesn't charge the parents.  Its paid for by the donations....I believe.

That's what I understand.  But when you pay a hospital bill, you're paying ALL the expenses of the hospital, including the cost of sending the director of human resources to LA for a conference, including hotels and meals.  You're not just paying for the nurse to sing Kum Bai Yah.  

[\GoBillsInDallas/]

2 hours ago, WhoTom said:

https://www.charitynavigator.org/

 

The IRS website allows you to check on the income forms that the charities are required to file"

 

https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/tax-exempt-organization-search

[That's No Moon]

5 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

I read an article years ago and they had these published from the bigger ones.

 

I need to start donating again to St. Judes hospital.  I believe 100% of proceeds go to the hospital.

Those TV commercials aren't free so it's impossible that 100 percent goes to the hospital. Some goes to the marketing people to get you to donate.

[TheBrownBear]

5 hours ago, Don Otreply said:

Kinda like them golf balls as of late… twenty in the pocket, five to the charity…, and it gets worse than that, 

If your are going to give, go directly to the organization you want to help out, no middle men/women 

Lol.  You do realize that Oncore is a business, not a charity, right, and the Vero balls retail for $45.  They are donating $5 of their potential profit to the children's hospital when you make a purchase.  Assuming a person actually likes and plays the balls, it's a win-win.  

 

About half of us on this site are so badly misinformed on most topics.  The other half is somewhere between willfully ignorant to downright deranged.

 

Full disclosure - my wife has worked in development (director level) for a handful of national non-profit organizations (both arts and medical/patient care) over the course of her career.  Once an organization grows to a certain size and runs a substantial amount of programs, a certain amount of overhead costs are inevitable in order to keep things running smoothly.  I can assure you that the vast majority of these organizations are committed to their core values and servicing their target community, not lining non-profit professionals' pockets with cash.  Of course, as with any large organization there are inefficiencies and places where costs can be cut.  No denying that.

Edited February 10, 2023 by TheBrownBear

[Royale with Cheese]

22 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

That's what I understand.  But when you pay a hospital bill, you're paying ALL the expenses of the hospital, including the cost of sending the director of human resources to LA for a conference, including hotels and meals.  You're not just paying for the nurse to sing Kum Bai Yah.  

 

If it's this nurse, you aren't paying her to sing.

 

 

[Punching Bag]

12 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

If it's this nurse, you aren't paying her to sing.

 

 

 

I am sure she is on expense account for a number of charity officers.

 

I never donate directly to charities anymore - always through work or some other method.

Too many charities have sold my information to others including other charity money raisers - one worked for a different charity and then called me for the new company he worked for.  Whenever I provide information to a non-bank or government I always include some wrong information (i.e. wrong middle initial or two middle initials) and I see this information propagated. 

Charities also refuse to take you off mailing list and keep mailing to you despite it costing money. 

I have even returned their SASE with requests to remove my name and they ignore it.

[Don Otreply]

3 hours ago, TheBrownBear said:

Lol.  You do realize that Oncore is a business, not a charity, right, and the Vero balls retail for $45.  They are donating $5 of their potential profit to the children's hospital when you make a purchase.  Assuming a person actually likes and plays the balls, it's a win-win.  

 

About half of us on this site are so badly misinformed on most topics.  The other half is somewhere between willfully ignorant to downright deranged.

 

Full disclosure - my wife has worked in development (director level) for a handful of national non-profit organizations (both arts and medical/patient care) over the course of her career.  Once an organization grows to a certain size and runs a substantial amount of programs, a certain amount of overhead costs are inevitable in order to keep things running smoothly.  I can assure you that the vast majority of these organizations are committed to their core values and servicing their target community, not lining non-profit professionals' pockets with cash.  Of course, as with any large organization there are inefficiencies and places where costs can be cut.  No denying that.

Do you feel better now. 😁

[dhgold]

I live in Denver where of course this was a big story. One of the stronger explanations proposed says that Russ created this charity to bolster his NFL Man of the Year canidacy, put his friends in charge of it and barely knows what it's doing. Broncos supporters believe his heart is in the right place but that he lacks "street smarts" and is being taken advantage of.

 

Since the Broncos traded for him, there's been one thing after another that had to be explained away or looked past. The one pure positive is that he set an unofficial record for time spent signing autographs at training camp.

[chongli]

On 2/9/2023 at 5:56 PM, I am the egg man said:

A charitable cause that is fraudulent?

 

…..if folks only knew how few of the dollars donated to a charity actually go to the said “charity”.

 

Agreed. I gave a similar warning here when people wanted to donate to Tua's foundation after his second (? so many I have lost count) concussion this season. Some people disagreed with me and wanted to show how giving Bills Mafia was.

[US Egg]

On 2/9/2023 at 9:31 PM, Royale with Cheese said:

I think the decent ones average like 40%-45% towards the cause.

I can’t avow and could be wrong, but believe this would be considered exemplary.

[boater]

Poorly run charities are plentiful. That's why I liked contributing at the office as a federal employee. They had a database of charities, one of the fields was how much of donations covered operating costs (Administrative and Fundraising Expense Rate, AFR) ...instead of flowing to the actual charitable interest.

 

Look up your own favorite charity (they aren't all there): https://cfcgiving.opm.gov/offerings

 

I looked up a couple AFRs to see how much was spent on overhead:

  Sumaritan's Purse, a respectable 11.2%

  Hunters Hope, 18.5%, not bad for a boutique charity

  Red Cross, 9.2%

[Mr. WEO]

On 2/10/2023 at 2:03 PM, TheBrownBear said:

Lol.  You do realize that Oncore is a business, not a charity, right, and the Vero balls retail for $45.  They are donating $5 of their potential profit to the children's hospital when you make a purchase.  Assuming a person actually likes and plays the balls, it's a win-win.  

 

About half of us on this site are so badly misinformed on most topics.  The other half is somewhere between willfully ignorant to downright deranged.

 

Full disclosure - my wife has worked in development (director level) for a handful of national non-profit organizations (both arts and medical/patient care) over the course of her career.  Once an organization grows to a certain size and runs a substantial amount of programs, a certain amount of overhead costs are inevitable in order to keep things running smoothly.  I can assure you that the vast majority of these organizations are committed to their core values and servicing their target community, not lining non-profit professionals' pockets with cash.  Of course, as with any large organization there are inefficiencies and places where costs can be cut.  No denying that.

 

good point.  This seems like a non-story, but for the guy who "runs" charity under his name.  If you want to give, simply vet your charity.  It's not.  If you can't either don't give or don't care how it is spent.  Simple.

 

"37% of nonprofit organizations with private contributions of $50,000 or more reported no fundraising or special event costs on their 2000 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 990

Nearly 13% of operating public charities reported spending nothing for management and general expenses (Source: The Nonprofit Overhead Cost Study), and further scrutiny found that 75-85% of these organizations were incorrectly reporting the costs associated with grants."

 

 

Only 40% of Wilson's charity goes to it's intended purpose?  Yeah, I guess that's not great.  Far more worrisome is that nearly 40% of charities claim they have no over head costs at all!!---when the vast majority of them are lying about that, no doubt to score more donations.