Tommy ploy
Charity repays Brady with money for QB’s own fund
“Best Buddies” has been a great friend to Tom Brady’s own charitable goals.
Best Buddies International, which bills itself as a nonprofit that helps people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, has profited greatly from its relationship with the Patriots quarterback, who has lent his image and time to help the charity.
Since 2011, Brady has helped raise nearly $20 million for Best Buddies. Since 2001, Best Buddies said Brady has helped drum up $46.5 million for the charity.
And according to a deep dive by the Boston Globe in a report that looks skeptically at Brady’s involvement, the charity has funneled $2.75 million to Brady’s own charity trust, his Change the World Foundation, since 2011. Best Buddies also pledged an additional $500,000 in 2017 to Brady’s own trust, which the Globe said is focused almost entirely on causes close to Brady’s heart.
In essence, a small portion of the money Brady has helped raise for Best Buddies goes back into his charity fund, which gives money to interests such as his high school alma mater and his children’s private schools. The report indicates that actor Kevin Spacey, too, has had this arrangement with Best Buddies, with his charity receiving a grant of $200,000 in 2015.
This is not illegal, and none of the cash appears destined for Brady’s wallet. But Brady has used Best Buddies’ funds to fill the coffers of his own charity trust, which he reportedly began in 2005 with a donation of $490,000, and hasn’t contributed toward since, according to tax reports through 2015.
“It’s not all bad, because he is helping an important cause,’’ said Daniel Borochoff, president of Charity Watch, which keeps an eye on where charity funds go. “But he could help Best Buddies to a much greater extent if he didn’t take their money’’ for his own charitable trust.
Anthony K. Shriver, the founder and chairman of Best Buddies, said they agreed to give Brady’s trust $250,000 in 2011, then $500,000 annually every year since. He said there is no contract between the two.
“I think it has been a smart move, because we have been able to provide services to tens of thousands of people because of Tom, while keeping him engaged and helping him pursue some of his own interests,” said Shriver, the son of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and nephew of President John F. Kennedy. “It has been super beneficial to us and him.”
Brady was unavailable for comment to the Globe.