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Raising Millions for Charity, And Even More for Golfers
Tiger Woods greets Barbara Bush and former president George H.W. Bush.
(By Toni L. Sandys -- The Washington Post)
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"There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but it would make me want to look more carefully" at the foundation, said Greg Johnson, executive director of the Bethesda-based Sports Philanthropy Project, which studies athletes' foundations.
In 2004, the Tiger Woods Foundation gave the Target Foundation $600,000 -- the Woods foundation's largest gift that fiscal year. A Target consultant sat on the Woods foundation's board until recently, but she apparently did not join the foundation until after the gifts had been made. McLaughlin said the payments helped cover youth scholarships.
The charities also have ties to Woods's sports agent, IMG (previously known as International Management Group).
From 1999 to 2002, records show, the Tiger Woods Charity Event Corp. paid $375,000 to IMG for what the nonprofit's tax returns describe as consulting services. IMG has helped develop Woods's public image and helped win him millions of dollars in corporate endorsements.
In 2000, the head of IMG's golf division, Mark Steinberg, joined the board of the Tiger Woods Foundation. Steinberg is Woods's agent at IMG.
Charity watchdogs are always on the lookout for conflicts of interest and self-dealing at nonprofit organizations. One charity has established a Web site that offers stark advice about how sports agents can use athletes' foundations to collect a bigger paycheck.
"By setting up a foundation . . . for your client you can obtain COMPENSATION FOREVER from gifts made from this foundation," says the Web site of the National Heritage Foundation. "You, the agent, may receive compensation directly."
McLaughlin said there was no conflict of interest between Steinberg's board position and the payments to IMG. The payments were commissions for the company's work attracting sponsors for its tournaments, he said. In recent weeks, IMG has been working to line up financial backers for the AT&T National, and IMG will be paid commissions for any sponsorship money it brings in, he said. Such commissions are paid competitively and IMG receives no special consideration from the charity.
"It was totally an arms-length transaction," McLaughlin said.
Last fall, the foundation moved into offices in Irvine, Calif., for which the charity will pay nearly $1 million in rent over five years. The landlord is a corporate affiliate of the Irvine Co.
Mike McKee, the vice chairman of the Irvine Co., sits on the foundation's board. McLaughlin said McKee had nothing to do with the arrangement, and that the foundation hired a consultant to confirm the rent was reasonable.
"It was the right property, in the right place, that we could afford," McLaughlin said. "It just happened to be an Irvine Company property."
Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.
