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I got this Tweet the other day from a reader, who said that he was “back on the DeSean bandwagon” after seeing this in the Washington Sun Times:

If you’re in the Washington DC area this weekend, I think it might be worth a trip over to DeSean Jackson’s celebrity golf tournament over at The Golf Club at Landsdowne in Landsdowne, Va.

Proceeds for the tournament will go to the Sol Goldman Pancreatic Research Center at Johns Hopkins University, as well as the DeSean Jackson Foundation, which is a public charity that goes towards pancreatic cancer research. Jackson’s father, Bill, died from pancreatic cancer in 2009.

WHAT A GUY, RIGHT?

Well, as we’ve detailed before, there’s no record that DeSean’s charity, whose stated mission is “support in research of pancreatic cancer,” has ever donated money to pancreatic cancer research. Based on four publicly available 990 fillings (links at end of post), from 2009-2012 (their 2014 filing for 2013 isn’t available yet), D-Jac’s foundation had donated exactly… carry the 2… zero to cancer research, and yet spent tens of thousands on fundraising events, like this one, which make for great PR but do little actual good.

Here’s how the financials break down:

2009

Revenue:

$26,460

Expenses:

$0

2010

Revenue:

$43,569 (from “Annual Gala for Support in research of pancreatic cancer”)

Expenses:

$50,232

$1,200 (accounting)

$38,862 (fundraising services– likely the cost of the gala)

$3,930 (advertising)

$3,150 (office expenses)

$2,237 (travel)

$850 (filing fees)

$103 (bank fees)

$0 (grants or donations)

2011

Revenue

$16,609 (from “Annual Gala for Support in research of pancreatic cancer”)

Expenses

$34,106

$217 (legal)

$2,400 (accounting)

$27,186 (advertising and promotion)

$1,609 (office expenses)

$1,756 (occupancy– whatever the fuck that means)

$938 (travel)

$0 (grants or donations)

 

2012

Revenue

$10,218

Expenses

$3,114

$1,200 (accounting)

$996 (advertising)

$808 (office expenses)

$110 (bank fee)

$0 (grants or donations)

All that adds up to $96,856 in total fundraising, with a net profit of around $9k as of the end of 2012… and exactly $0  documented that was donated to cancer research. The 2012 filing notes that the organization provided cancer screenings and seminars to various high schools. So, you can argue that they’re raising awareness– but the high-profile, positive-PR-y fundraisers are, as of the most recently available filings, mostly bullshit.

And just to compare this to a real charity: I got my (spectator) invite in the mail the other day for Ron Jaworski’s Celebrity Golf Challenge at one of his courses, Blue Heron Pines. It took me exactly two minutes to find out how much the Jaws Youth Fund donated to charity in 2012 and 2013– $268,521:

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Grants and contributions

That’s what a real charity looks like. You should support Jaws’ event.*

*A spot check of other local or notable athletes – Cole Hamels, Jamie Moyer, Ryan Howard, LeSean McCoy – all show positive fundraising, significant contributions, or, in McCoy’s case, what looks to be $85k worth of food and clothing donations. DeSean’s is the only one that continuously reports nonsensical expenses.

You can find all the filings mentioned here: [DeSean 2010] [DeSean 2011] [DeSean 2012] [Jaws 2013]