A look at Jazz players' charities

Boozer's Buddies

Carlos Boozer has launched his Boozer's Buddies foundation through the Giving Back Fund in the hopes of helping one family annually with a child battling sickle cell disease. Boozer's son Carmani was stricken with the disease and needed a bone marrow transplant, the cost of which exceeded $1.5 million. Boozer plans a bowling fundraiser to be held in Salt Lake City in February or March.

Kirilenko's Kids

Andrei Kirilenko's foundation focuses on supporting orphanage, cancer center and sports school in his native Russia as well as Salt Lake City's Huntsman Cancer Foundation. According to tax documents, Kirilenko in 2006 gave $23,374 to the orphanage, $25,659 to the cancer center, $20,000 to Huntsman and $32,960 to the Frunzenskaya Sport School. The Kirilenkos also bought $3,559 worth of gifts for children at Huntsman and spent $2,544 for medical care in Russia. With the $30,000 worth of Jazz tickets they donate annually, Kirilenko's Kids expects to make donations of approximately $55,000 locally and $156,000 in Russia for 2008.

Point of Hope Foundation

From his golf events, Deron Williams donated $20,000 to the Huntsman Cancer Foundation in 2007 in the name of Tatum Fisher, Derek Fisher's infant daughter who was stricken with a rare form of eye cancer. He donated $30,000 in 2008 to the Carmen B. Pingree Center for Autism. Williams donated $300,000 to endow a basketball scholarship at Illinois

and made three $5,000 to a group of local charities -- Boys and Girls Club, Lutheran Services and Crisis Nursery -- in the Champaign, Ill., area. Williams also spent approximately $40,000 to host Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for a group of single mothers and their children.

Kyle Korver Foundation

Kyle Korver's charity raised $25,000 in the summer of 2007 and at least $25,000 in the summer of 2008 through golf events for Boys and Girls Club in north Omaha, Neb. Korver also raised $26,000 through kickball marathon in summer 2008 to support Helping Hand Mission in Philadelphia with goal of eventually start after school program. Korver also held a basketball camp in his hometown of Pella, Iowa, to help support a new sports park.

Assist by Knight

Brevin Knight's foundation holds golf event in Memphis to support the Multiple Sclerosis Association and a basketball camp in his hometown of East Orange, N.J. His wife Deena, runs Project Bloom for unprivileged girls in Charlotte, N.C. Knight donated $38,312 of his own mony to his foundation in 2006. The Knights also spend $4,000 a year to help pay the tuition at Winston-Salem State of a 20-year-old woman who spent part of high school living in a Salvation Army shelter. The basketball camp cost $8,222 and the golf tournament $27,268, according to tax documents.

 

- Ross Siler

 

Note » Kirilenko and Knight both have filed Form 990s through 2006. Boozer, Korver and Williams all launched their foundations too recently to be included in the most current reporting cycle.