June 1994
Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina • 13
Hornets
Continued from page 12
Starry Night,’ a game with NBA Ail
Stars, that netted $101,000 for the
United Way.
Alonzo Mourning works to com
bat and increase awareness of child
abuse. Muggsy Bogues helps the
Teen Health Connection and the
Boy Scouts, while Dell Curry and
his wife have led efforts to fight
domestic violence. Many of the
players — along with Hugo, the
team mascot — dso regularly visit
nursing homes and children’s
homes and make celebrity appear
ances at fundraisers and special
events.
Coach Allan Bristow was the
impetus for the annual Special
Olympics Day with the Hornets,
when young athletes who have men
tal retardation spend a day at the
Charlotte
Coliseum,
watching the
team practice
and then partic
ipating in a has-
ketball clinic
with them.
“It’s always
important for
us to support
charities,” says
Curry. “We all
want to give
back to the community. We had
help along the way, and we want to
return the favor.”
It’s all part of the Hornets’ cor
porate culture.
“George is generous, and he
encourages us to be likewise,” says
Bowler, who serves on nine commu
nity hoards, such as the Juvenile
Diabetes Foundation, American Red
Cross, Better Business Bureau and
Larry Johnson
the Anita Stroud Foundation.
Shinn encourages aU 53 of his
employees to take a day off work
each month - with pay - to work for
a charitable organization.
“Part of my commitment,” Shinn
says, “has been that this team and
the players will get involved and
support this community in every
way they can.”
The word has gotten out about
the Hornets’ generosity: Bowler
says the team receives about 400
requests a week for personal
appearances by a player, Hugo or
Honey, the mascot for the
HoneyBees, the Hornets’ cheerlead
ers; autographed items, such as
basketballs or photos; financial con
tributions; or in-kind donations.
The team can’t honor all the re
quests, and it has a system to set
priorities. Bowler says the team
generally focuses its charity within
a 75-mile radius of Charlotte and
rarely rejects a request to help
inner-city youth or terminally ill
children or Special Olympics.
Special Olympics and Charlotte’s
community policing efforts are the
main benefactors of the Top Hats &
High Tops Ball, an annual Hornets
fundraiser that encourages guests
to attend wearing any combination
of formal attire and athletic shoes.
“George knows first-hand about
poverty,” says Bowler. “He identi
fies with the needy, and many of the
players can, too.”
Shinn’s philanthropy predated
his ownership of the Hornets by
many years. In 1974, he founded
the Shinn Foundation to provide
funds for young ministerial stu
dents. That’s still funded, hut the
foundation has expanded its efforts
into many other areas.
Roger Schweickert, vice presi
dent of corporate affairs for Shinn
Enterprises, says the foundation
supports numerous social concerns,
especially those dealing with disad
vantaged youth, with an emphasis
on Mecklenburg County organiza
tions.
Recent contributions have gone
to the Boys Club of America, the
Arts and Science Council, Habitat
for Humanity, Charlotte’s Jewish
Community Center, Junior
Achievement and the Salvation
Army.
The foundation has no endow
ment, but Shinn contributes a per
centage of his annual income to the
foundation to make gifts.
And Shinn is always waiting to
take on a new challenge for an
organization in need. In April, he
became chairman of the hoard of
trustees of Barher-Scotia College in
Concord and pledged to raise $1
million for the financially-troubled
institution - or to contribute it him
self.
Panthers
Continued from page 12
talk to the kids.
‘We’ll try to show them what a typical day is
like tor an NFL football player,” Shell says.
Shell has also spoken at a Johnson C.
Smith University fundraiser and is involved
with the Columbia, S.C., Youth Games. Shell
wants Panthers players to he active in the com
munity. In particular, he says, he’d like to see
them active with the elderly, a group that some
times gets overlooked by the young and ener
getic.
Mark Richardson, the team’s director of
business operations and the son of the owner,
also has been active. Richardson was honorary
chairman of an April walk-a-thon for the
Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.
Judy Craig, the foundation’s corporate
development representative, says last year’s
event included 850 walkers and raised
$105,000.
With Richardson doing radio advertise
ments and using his Panthers contacts to pro
mote the ’94 walk, the foundation had more
than 2,000 walkers and raised more than
$200,000.
“We can’t say enough about him and his
staff there,” Craig says of Richardson and the
Panthers. “They’re wonderful. We hope the
Panthers win, too.”
Craig says Richardson has agreed to return
as honorary chairman in ’95.
The Panthers’ future philanthropy hasn’t
been fully determined.
Shell says he hasn’t set his budget yet. Mike
McCormack, the congenial team president, has
been immersed in the hiring of football-related
personnel and says the Panthers haven’t estab
lished their plans for corporate giving.
McCormack does say the Panthers will he
involved with the United Way. And the team
may make some tickets available to underprivi
leged children. During the drive to land the
franchise in Charlotte, some city residents criti
cized Mark Richardson for not making tickets
available to the disadvantaged.
Also to be decided is how charities will ben
efit from an unusual stadium deal. When the
Panthers were urging the NFL to award them a
team last fall, some NFL owners were con
cerned that Jerry Richardson’s group had to
finance a $160 million stadium, only $100 mil
lion of which would come from the sale of ri^ts
to the seats. Raising the remaining $60 million
would generate additional debt on an owner
ship group that already had to pay $140 million
to the league to win the franchise for the team.
So Richardson put the stadium in a trust.
That way, the Panthers owners aren’t liable if
the stadium loses money. The trust wiU be gov
erned by a board of trustees and will give
money to charities.
How much? And to which charities? No
one’s sure just yet.“We’ve been so busy,” says
Dick Thigpen, the team’s attorney. “TTiat will
cOme in time.”
What is established is the charitable work
of NFL Charities, which draws its money from
a percentage of sales of NFL merchandise - the
league won’t say how much - and from fines
levied on players during the NFL season.
NFL Charities has players nominate a for
mer teacher for Teacher of the Year, and flies
them to the Pro Bowl in Honolulu. Charitable
organizations with a national scope may ask
NFL Charities for funds.
The hoard of NFL Charities is led by Paul
Ta^abue, the league commissioner. Last year
the board approved funds for Junior
Achievement, for scholarship funds for Native
Americans and Hispanics, for the Pop Warner
Little Scholars program and for a variety of
other organizations.
The NFL itself is a nonprofit service organi
zation under section 501(c)(6) of the Internal
Revenue Code. But that status has nothing to
do with philanthropy.
“It really has to do with the way the tax
code is structured,” says NFL spokesman Greg
Aiello. He says the league is essentially a ser
vice organization for the teams, which of
course are enormously profitable.
The Panthers themselves aren’t profitable
yet. Bulldozers just are beginning to move dirt
for the stadium, and the team won’t begin play
ing until the 1995 season. But the Panthers are
anxious to begin scoring touchdowns and post
ing profits - and contributing on a regular basis
to charities in the Carolinas.
For now, McCormack quips, “We’re just try
ing to get back to the line of scrimmage.”
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