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Although he has yet to visit the Crisis Nursery in Urbana, Ill., Deron Williams' presence is unmistakable in the office of executive director Stephanie Record, where an oversized check from Williams' Point of Hope Foundation sits atop a bookcase.
Through his foundation, the Utah Jazz's star point guard made three $5,000 donations in September to support a group of local charities in neighboring Champaign and Urbana, where he played college basketball at the University of Illinois.
"It was just a gift," Record said. "It's wonderful to get something like that for us and to keep our doors open. It just makes a big difference."
Crisis Nursery offers a safe haven for children up to age 5, with the goal of preventing potential abuse. The nursery lost $10,000 in grants this year, and Williams' donation made up half the difference. "If he walked in the doors and saw what we're doing here, he would be thrilled," Record said.
Williams has given more than $400,000 in less than 18 months since launching his foundation. In Utah, he's donated nearly $30,000 to Salt Lake City's Carmen B. Pingree Center, $20,000 to the Huntsman Cancer Foundation and has hosted holiday dinners for single mothers, among other gifts.
"I'd rather just give kids Christmas presents and them not even know who it's from," Williams said. "But if people see me doing that, people see me helping, they see that we can do it, they can follow along with us."
Among
As a group, these charities face numerous management, fundraising and oversight challenges, according to a Salt Lake Tribune analysis of hundreds of tax documents foundations are required by law to file (see story on page A1). But the five charities operated by Jazz players, although still nascent in the cases of Williams, Korver and Boozer, so far appear to have avoided major problems. None has grown to become the multimillion-dollar charities operated by NBA greats such as former Houston Rockets center Dikembe Mutombo and retired Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning, but all appear well-funded and are making a difference in the communities where they operate.
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Kirilenko's Kids » Even among the best-run foundations, Kirilenko's stands out.
According to tax records, in 2006 the Jazz center donated $23,374 to clean up a Russian orphanage, $25,659 to modernize a hospital, $20,000 to the Huntsman Cancer Institute and $32,960 to refurbish a sports school. Such efforts led The Sporting News to recognize him that year for his charitable work.
A board that includes Zions Bank President Scott Anderson and Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan advises Kirilenko. Monthly and annual reports are produced. Even a monthly $4,000 donation of diapers to the orphanage is accounted for.
"To their credit," Kirilenko and his wife, Masha, "have taken the time and effort to create a board, an organization, to do things in a more structured way rather than just simply handing out money," said Jeff Robbins, chairman of the Kirilenko's Kids Foundation.
Kirilenko has found time in spite of the intense demands on an NBA player, Robbins added. Beyond the 82-game schedule, there are regular practices, family commitments, business interests and team appearances, often leaving little time for foundation work.
"People are pulling at their cape all the time and people are asking, 'Can you do things for us?' " Robbins said. "Life sometimes would be easier if they didn't."
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Assist by Knight » Knight launched his Assist by Knight foundation in 2002 when he was playing for the Memphis Grizzlies. The Jazz point guard has played for nine teams in his 12-year career, but has focused his charitable work largely in Memphis, Charlotte, N.C., and his hometown of East Orange, N.J.
Knight runs a basketball camp in East Orange and hosts a golf event in Memphis benefiting the Multiple Sclerosis Association. His wife, Deena, organizes Project Bloom in Charlotte, which includes a prom gala for underprivileged girls. Through that organization, the Knights met April Evans, who had been living at a Salvation Army shelter in high school. They now help pay for her tuition at Winston-Salem State, at a cost of $4,000 a year.
"I didn't grow up with everything," Knight said. "My parents were working-class people and I saw that there were people that needed more than what I need and I always said if I got a chance to … help somebody else out, then I would do it."
Tax records show Knight donated $38,312 of his own money to his foundation in 2006. He took in $40,902 through the golf event and basketball camp, spent $51,745 in expenses -- including the cost of the two events -- and finished the year $29,151 in the black.
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Point of Hope Foundation » Williams' participation as an NBA rookie in Kenny Thomas' charity golf event in Albuquerque, N.M., planted his interest in starting the Point of Hope Foundation. "I had fun at that event and I was thinking, 'Maybe I can do something like this,' " he said.
His agent connected Williams with Coaching Charities, a Las Vegas-based management company that runs foundations for teams and
individuals from the Sacramento Kings to Notre Dame football hero Rudy Ruettiger.
Although Williams drives his foundation's direction, he is largely free from the daily responsibility of running it.
Because his charity is new, he has not yet filed forms with the IRS, but Kevin Kaplan, president of Coaching Charities, outlined more than $400,000 in donations by Williams' foundation, including a $300,000 gift to endow a basketball scholarship at Illinois, along with the donations to the Pingree Center and Huntsman Cancer Institute from his golf event.
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Kyle Korver Foundation » Korver's agent Jeff Schwartz advised him to start a foundation to "streamline" his giving. He runs it with the help of family members, which Korver said is part of the appeal to having his own foundation. His mother, Laine, is a vice president and his brother Klayton also is involved.
He so far has helped raise $25,000 each of the past two summers for a Boys and Girls Club in a minority neighborhood in north Omaha, Neb., where he played college basketball at Creighton. That money enabled the club to buy three vans in 2007 and cover the spike in gas prices last summer. He hosted a golf fundraiser in Omaha, and held a kickball marathon last summer in Philadelphia with friends he made while playing for the 76ers.
"The dream is to kind of keep on growing it," Korver said, "to bring in more friends and more family, more people that we enjoy, so we can all work together and just bless people."
Schwartz advised Korver to start the foundation now and increase his involvement after his playing career. Korver is launching a T-shirt line, with the proceeds going to his foundation.
Korver's foundation is not yet required to file tax records, but his donations were confirmed through the beneficiaries. The kickball event led to a $26,000 donation to a Philadelphia rescue mission in the hopes of eventually starting an after-school program.
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Boozer's Buddies » Boozer, meanwhile, still is in the process of setting up his Boozer's Buddies foundation through the national Giving Back Fund, which manages foundations for professional athletes. Boozer said he likely will hold a bowling fundraiser in Utah in February or March.
The Jazz forward added he would like to help one family with a child battling sickle cell disease. His son Carmani underwent a bone marrow transplant in August 2007 that required a 40-day hospital stay, with bills totaling more than $1.5 million.
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Community response » Huntsman Cancer Foundation President Janet Bingham is among Utahns who are quick to point out the lasting impact of Jazz players' charity.
Kirilenko's and Williams' contributions have made a difference even to an agency with a $50 million budget. "Whether you give us a small donation or a large donation, every dollar is incredibly important to keep this lifesaving work going," she said.
Thanks to the Huntsmans, Bingham regularly hosts potential donors at Jazz games in an EnergySolutions Arena suite. She always makes a point of talking about donations Jazz players have made and the time they have given.
"I get such pleasure out of explaining what these guys have done for cancer patients," Bingham said. "People are just amazed."
Recently, Jazz player foundations have acted to enhance cooperation with one another. Earlier this month, they joined local partners to announce a $30,000 donation to help the Utah Food Bank, The Road Home and the United Way.
For his part, Williams said he could see his foundation growing to someday rival those of standouts Mourning, Mutombo or the Phoenix Suns' Steve Nash, all of whom operate charities with more than $1 million in annual revenue.
"I'm in my fourth year [in the NBA], so it's only going to grow, only going to open up more doors, meet new people," he said. "It's a lot about networking and who you meet. I have a lot of people coming up to me now with ideas and wanting to do some collaborations and things like that."
