A-Rod's 2006 Charity Poker Tournament Helped His Foundation Raise $400K That Year, But Only $5K Was Donated To Charity: ReportThe Boston Globe Says That Slugger's Foundation Was Not Too Charitable |
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New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez has just taken another huge public relations hit after he apparently used a 2006 charity poker tournament to repair his image.
In a scathing exposé by the Boston Globe on the successes and failures of nonprofits associated with professional athletes, Rodriguez was pointed out as starting a foundation that only gave one percent of its proceeds to charity in 2006 — the year it was founded.
The A-Rod Family Foundation reportedly then stopped submitting mandatory financial reports to the Internal Revenue Service and thus lost its tax-exempt status.
The year 2006 was also when his foundation held a poker tournament to raise money.
The Boston Globe’s Callum Borchers wrote:
Rodriguez talked openly about his desire to reverse bad publicity in 2006 after being exposed as a member of an underground poker club. He started a foundation and teamed with rapper Jay-Z to host a celebrity poker tournament for charity.
“I got in some trouble for poker last year, so why not turn it around and raise some money for the children?” Rodriguez said in an interview with MLB.com at the time.
The event helped the A-Rod Family Foundation raise $403,862 in 2006, but little found its way to charity, according to IRS records. The foundation gave $5,000 to Jay-Z’s Shawn Carter Scholarship Fund and $90 to a Little League Baseball club in Miami.
It’s unclear where the rest of the money went.
Image via NY Daily News/Getty Images.
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