Sports Foundations Survey Methodology

The Sports Philanthropy Project conducted a survey of charitable foundations associated with more than 400 professional sports teams, as well as league entities and individual athletes, throughout professional sports. Both financial and mission/program-related information was collected.

Financial Data:

Information on revenues, grant-making, and net assets was collected for each sports foundation or entity for which an IRS Form 990, 990-PF, or 990EZ was on file with GuideStar for Fiscal Year 2005.[1]

Information was obtained for approximately 35% of sports foundations included in the research.On the 990 forms, the data shown is reported in the following locations:

REVENUES - refers to the total income received by the foundation from all sources, which could include sources such as contributions, fees for services, sales of merchandise, etc.

990 – Line 12
990EZ – Line 9
990PF – Part I, Column A, Line 12

GRANTS - refers to the sum of all cash and in-kind (such as tickets, merchandise, etc.) grants made by the foundation to nonprofit organizations during the fiscal year.Filing foundations include a list of organizations to which grants are made as an attachment to their 990 filing.

990 – Line 22 (Box A)
990EZ – Line 10
990PF – Part I, Column A, Line 25

NET ASSETS - to the assets that the foundation holds over all liabilities at end-of-year.This data can provide a baseline indication of resources that a foundation has available to sustain its future activities.The number may include not only cash, but the value of real property such as facilities and equipment; stock holdings and investments; and accounts, pledges and grants receivable.

990 – Line 21
990EZ – Line 21
990PF – Part II, Column B, Line 30

Notes on financial information:

If there is no financial information provided for a particular foundation, it doesn’t necessarily mean that that foundation did not file a 2005 IRS 990– it simply means that there isn't one on file for them in GuideStar. There may be any number of reasons for this, such as:

The foundation was previously not required to file one – until the 2006 tax year, the IRS did not require nonprofits with gross revenues/incomes of less than $25,000 to file.
GuideStar has not received a 990 for that foundation from the IRS.
The foundation is located and operates in Canada. Visit the Canada Revenue Agency’s Charities Directorate website for information on tax filings for Canadian nonprofits.

The amount reported on grants made is based on what an organization reports on their 990 for their foundation specifically. However, it may not - in fact, in most cases it probably does not, particularly in the case of team entities - include all grants made under the auspices of a foundation. For example, a team may make charitable donations and/or conduct charitable activities through its community relations department, which often operates in a complementary fashion to but independent from the team foundation, or through a team owner’s family foundation.

Some team foundations operate their own programs, and may devote more resources to these programs than to grants to external organizations. It could be argued that in some cases, these programs may have an impact on a community equivalent to or greater than the foundation might have if it simply made grants to external nonprofits with those funds – however, there’s no real way to capture that nuance on an IRS 990. On this note, there’s no established impact correlation between a foundation’s income and grants made – in other words, if organization A has a greater income than organization B, but organization B makes more grants, one cannot necessarily conclude that organization B is “doing more for the community,” so to speak. In essence, one cannot make a thorough analysis of a foundation's imapct from financial data alone. Take a look at some of the resource links on on "Sports Foundations" page for more information.

Mission/Program Information:

Using GuideStar, which collects and publishes tax filings and other information about more than 1.7 million nonprofits in the U.S., as well as Internet research, information was collected on mission and types of programs operated by sports foundations.Foundations included in the survey were also contacted via e-mail and given the opportunity to revise program information to reflect current operations and deliverables. The information presented here is only a snapshot of the organizaton as a whole - a reflection of a foundation's mission and signature programs - and likely does not reflect the entirety of a foundation's charity work. Visit a foundation's website (links are included in each profile) or contact the team/athlete foundation directly for additional information.

[1] Most 501(c)3 organizations file the general 990 form; private foundations are required to file Form 990-PF, and foundations with assets of less than $100,000 and revenues of less than $25,000 may file Form 990 but have the option of filing Form 990EZ.

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