Lobbing Millions to Charity

The tennis star Andre Agassi is now a champion fund raiser

As a teenager, Andre Agassi bleached his hair, painted his fingernails, and dropped out of school in 10th

grade to pursue his dream of playing professional tennis.

As he turns 34 this week and nears retirement from a career in which he has earned more than $200-million and worldwide fame, Mr. Agassi is returning to the classroom, in a far more serious way than before. He has helped build what ultimately will be a $70-million school here in his hometown, and he wants it to become a model for other public schools across the country.

Dozens of athletes — including the golfer Tiger Woods, the cyclist Lance Armstrong, and the soccer star Mia Hamm — raise money for charities, but few have given more than $1-million of their own money to charity, experts say. To date, Mr. Agassi has given about $20-million.

The tennis great also has persuaded his corporate sponsors and other celebrity friends to give to his foundation — helping him raise more than $50-million. Mr. Agassi, who earns $20-million a year from his endorsement deals — a sum topped only by Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan, according to Forbes magazine — says he makes sure that all his sponsors, including American Express, Canon, Estee Lauder, and Nike, contribute to his charity. “There’s not a deal I have — not a partnership or endorsement deal, not an investment deal, not a facet of my business — where the foundation isn’t tied directly in,” he says. “I look at it real simple: If I’m going to be in with a company, they better care about the fabric of my foundation’s future — or else I have no interest in them.”

Time for Philanthropy

In part because of the sport he plays, Mr. Agassi has avoided many of the pitfalls that have derailed the charitable work of other athletes. The professional tennis season lasts 11 months a year, but tennis players are not required to participate in every event, giving Mr. Agassi more time to devote to his philanthropy.

As Mr. Agassi has gotten older he has reduced his tournament schedule to prevent his body from wearing down. On a recent spring day spent talking about his philanthropy, however, Mr. Agassi didn’t appear in danger of wearing down anytime soon. Although gray hair has started to appear on his temples, his muscular chest appeared pronounced in a T-shirt tucked neatly into tight jeans, which accentuated his strong legs.

Mr. Agassi remains one of the top athletes in the world — he has won an Olympic gold medal and is one of five men in history to win all four major tennis championships — but his reduced tennis schedule allows him to spend about half the year in Las Vegas, where he was born and raised.

Since 1994, when Mr. Agassi set up the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, he has helped support more than 20 children’s organizations in and around Las Vegas. He established the organization as a charity, which allows it to accept donations from others.

Mr. Agassi’s annual fund-raising event, the Grand Slam for Children — which has included appearances by the comedians Robin Williams and Dennis Miller, the musicians Elton John and Sheryl Crow, and dozens of famous athletes — last year raised $12.6-million, including a $6.3-million contribution from Ty Warner, founder of Beanie Babies, a collectible-toy company.

Among athletes who sponsor fund raisers, Mr. Agassi holds one of the largest, experts say, but others also bring in big money for charity. Lance Armstrong’s Ride for the Roses Weekend last fall raised $4.5-million for his foundation, which supports cancer research. And the retired basketball star Magic Johnson holds an annual dinner and auction that has helped raise $1.5-million for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Like many athletes, Mr. Agassi contributes to causes that help children. “Children seemed like a natural fit for me — I just have a connection to the innocence of kids,” Mr. Agassi says. “I want to get to children who are at risk and give them a chance to succeed in life before they become a liability to society.” Mr. Agassi and his wife, Stefanie Graf, the tennis legend, who is now retired, have two children of their own, ages 2 1/2 and 6 months.

But Mr. Agassi says he also has a more practical reason for giving to children’s causes.

“I wasn’t interested in throwing money at something. I was interested in highlighting a real-life concern in society, bringing awareness to it, and hopefully inspiring others to raise their own accountability and involvement,” he says. “While I believe an athlete or a celebrity might have more accessibility or means to affect change than someone else, I don’t believe the responsibility is different — it falls on everyone’s shoulders.”

His Own Money

Mr. Agassi has succeeded as a fund raiser because he puts so much of his own money into his foundation and makes sure that every penny donated to his organization goes directly to programs, according to Perry Rogers, president of his foundation.

“People see Andre giving millions of dollars and putting up money to pay for all the administrative expenses,” says Mr. Rogers. “That shows them how real the commitment is for him.”

Mr. Agassi got the idea to pay his foundation’s operating costs from Elton John, who pays the operating costs for his AIDS foundation. About half of the $20-million Mr. Agassi has given to charity has gone toward the operating costs of his foundation.

Mr. Agassi says raising money has never come easy to him. “I find it very difficult to ask for favors,” he says. “It’s so much easier for me to give favors than to ask for them.”

But after a decade of fund raising, he says that he has grown more accustomed to asking for support.

Says Mr. Agassi: “I find it a lot easier to beg for the children than my original perspective of thinking I needed to get support for my foundation.”

Mr. Agassi’s first big push into philanthropy came in 1997, when he helped build the Andre Agassi Boys & Girls Club, which is located in a troubled neighborhood about six miles north of the glitzy Vegas strip. The club, which is built on four acres, has three tennis courts and an indoor basketball court. It also houses a community-college branch and a family-services organization. Mr. Agassi has given $3.75-million to help build and run the club.

But soon after giving money to build the facility, Mr. Agassi says, he wasn’t satisfied that he was doing enough good.

“We were giving children a place to direct their energies, but we realized that it still didn’t change the way they were thinking innately,” he says. “We realized we had to get into the schools — that education was really the only way to change a child’s life.”

While Mr. Agassi was competing at the 2001 U.S. Open, the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, a public charter school located a few blocks from the Agassi Boys & Girls Club, officially opened in a school district that education experts consider one of the worst in the nation.

About 3,000 charter schools exist nationwide. They operate as public schools and receive government funds as long as they meet certain performance standards agreed upon by the schools and the entities granting the charters. The local board of education granted the charter for Mr. Agassi’s school.

The goal at Agassi Prep is to make sure every child has the academic and social skills to complete a college education. The school has 250 students, about 90 percent of whom are black — and many of whom live in the surrounding neighborhoods. Nevada pays about $5,000 a year for each student who attends Mr. Agassi’s school, while the tennis star’s foundation pays about $2,500.

Mr. Agassi also has established an endowment that will pay for the school’s operating costs as long as it remains open.

Seeking Excellence

Agassi Prep has more than 50,000 square feet of space, including 14 classrooms, two science laboratories, an amphitheater, an art studio, and four computer rooms. Students from a local culinary institute cook lunches in the school’s cafeteria, where Emeril Lagasse, the celebrity chef who is a friend of Mr. Agassi, has given demonstrations.

On a tour of his school this month with his brother, Phillip, Mr. Agassi beamed with pride. He bragged about technological advances he has invested in, pointed out how the school’s natural lighting helps save energy, and described how “think tank” areas give students a quiet place to work.

“Everything I do,” Mr. Agassi says, “I demand it to be excellent.”

Mr. Agassi has similar high standards for students, according to the school’s principal, Kimberly Allen, who has worked in education for more than 20 years. Students at Agassi Prep are required to attend classes two weeks a year more — and for two hours longer every school day — than children at other local public schools, Ms. Allen says.

Agassi Prep enforces a strict code of discipline. Kids walk in straight lines between classes. They recite a code every morning. “The essence of good discipline is respect,” they say. “Respect for authority and respect for others; respect for self and respect for rules.”

Mr. Agassi also requires students to wear uniforms. “A child should stand out for his behavior and for what he offers as an individual, as opposed to his appearance,” he says.

While many parts of Agassi Prep are structured, students say they feel a difference inside the classroom — where teachers work hard to bring subjects alive. In a seventh-grade class, for example, students studying ancient Greece learn from a history book and memorize vocabulary, but they will also make costumes, perform a play, and re-create food from the period.

“Teachers here want us to go to college,” says Cashawnda Young, a sixth-grade student who is in her third year at Agassi Prep. “They give us high standards and they stick to them.”

Growing in Popularity

The disciplined but creative approach is paying off, Ms. Allen says, as children’s test scores have increased each year since the school opened. Students score at or above the state average on standardized tests.

And the school’s popularity continues to rise.

This school year, 355 children applied for 57 openings. Students are admitted through a random lottery computer system, and any child who is a resident of Las Vegas can apply.

In recent years, Mr. Rogers says, the lottery has admitted a handful of children from wealthier areas, some of whom have left private schools to enroll at the Agassi school.

“With our success, we’re attracting a student population that we’re not necessarily targeting,” Mr. Rogers says. “We’re not interested in raising our scores. We’re interested in proving that any child can learn.”

Many of the characteristics that have brought success to Agassi Prep — including its approach to discipline and creative instruction, and the high expectations it has for students — are common among charter schools, says Mark Cannon, executive director of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, in Alexandria, Va., whose members license and oversee charter schools.

But the difference between Agassi Prep and other charter schools is that Mr. Agassi and his representatives “went out of their way” to conduct research on what works and doesn’t work in public schools, spending time at many of the best charter schools before they opened their own, says Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, a Washington resource center.

Still, she says, she thinks Mr. Agassi and his representatives can do more.

To be truly successful, Ms. Allen says, “I would love to see them speaking more publicly on behalf of charter schools and education reform.”

Although Agassi Prep has overcome what experts say is the most common failing of charter schools — a lack of funds — it has experienced difficulties. When a student was expelled last year for behavior problems, the action drew protests from some parents. One teacher chalks that up to a control problem — with parents, not students.

“It’s easy to break kids of bad habits, but some of the parents are used to getting their way and running the school behind the scenes,” says Milan Ohala, a first-year science teacher. “That doesn’t happen here.”

Agassi Prep also last month was cited by the Clark County School District, which oversees Las Vegas schools, for failing to adhere to several state regulations, including the requirement that a school employ a full-time special-education teacher. Representatives from the school say they have since complied with the district’s regulations.

While helping to oversee a public school has proven in some ways to be more difficult than playing professional tennis, Mr. Agassi says, he gains greater satisfaction working with kids than he does from his individual athletic pursuits.

“When you win on the tennis court, you win,” Mr. Agassi says. “When you put hope in a child’s eyes, the world wins.”

THE ANDRE AGASSI CHARITABLE FOUNDATION

Purpose and areas of support: To provide educational and recreational opportunities for boys and girls in and around Las Vegas, with an emphasis on programs that focus on enhancing a child’s character, self-esteem, and career possibilities.

Amount raised: $13.6-million (in the 2003 fiscal year)

Amount distributed: $11-million (in the 2003 fiscal year)

Key officials: Perry Rogers, president; Julie Pippenger, executive director

Grants and operating programs: The foundation supports more than 10 organizations annually, including the Andre Agassi Boys & Girls Club, the Assistance League of Las Vegas, and Boys Hope Girls Hope of Las Vegas.

Application procedures: The foundation accepts grant proposals from tax-exempt, charitable organizations. It does not support projects that benefit specific individuals, serve religious purposes, or relate to illness or disabilities. Submission requests must be received by October 1 of each year to be considered for the following calendar year. Guidelines are available on the foundation’s Web site.

Address: 3960 Howard Hughes Parkway, Suite 750, Las Vegas, Nev. 89109; (702) 227-5700

Web site: http://www.agassifoundation.org