April 6, 2000 | Read Time: 1 minute
As part of its annual issue listing the world’s highest-paid entertainers and athletes, Forbes magazine (March 20) selected five of the best and five of the worst celebrity-associated charities.
Highest praise went to the Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation, with an outlay of $4.4-million and overhead expenses of $4,638. The foundation’s grants go primarily to groups in Maine, home state of the two horror-fiction writers.
Among the five with low marks was the Nicole Brown Simpson Foundation, run by the family of the late Nicole Simpson. The foundation to help battered women had an outlay of $160,000, of which 96 percent was overhead. Also in the running for worst, according to the ranking, was the Holyfield Foundation, set up by the heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield. The organization reported spending $646,000, of which only $92,991 was for charitable purposes.
Charity is in fashion for the stars. A quarter of the celebrities on the Forbes list had created a charitable organization. Forbes concluded that that was as much to burnish a star’s image as to gain a tax advantage and retain control over contributions.
The article is available online at http://www.forbes.com.
