Brett Favre's charitable foundation, Favre 4 Hope, is being scrutinized over grants it made over three years to help fund the University of Southern Mississippi's (USM) volleyball facility. As reported by The Athletic on Wednesday, September 28th, 2022, "From 2018-2020, Brett Favre's charitable foundation, Favre 4 Hope, which has a stated mission to support disadvantaged children and cancer patients, donated more than $130,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation during the same years that Favre was working to finance a new volleyball center at the school."
CharityWatch executive director, Laurie Styron, told The Athletic on Wednesday, "You can't say you're raising money for one purpose and then spend it on something totally different. Charities have an ethical obligation, and in some cases a legal obligation, to fulfill the intentions of [their] donors in the way funds are spent."
UPDATE: September 29th, 2022, 12:30pm
CharityWatch executive director, Laurie Styron, communicated with ESPN about the Brett Favre charity controversy, saying, "If the charity told donors it was raising money for breast cancer but then spends the resulting donations on an athletic facility, the people running the organization are not fulfilling their obligations to spend the nonprofit's donations the way its donors intended." She went on to say, "Charities are not personal piggy banks for their founders to tap into for pet projects. Celebrity athletes don't get a free pass, and if anything, should feel more of a personal obligation to set a good example by operating not only legally within the rules, but ethically so."
Representative Donald Payne (D-NJ) spoke about Brett Favre in remarks on the House floor, Wednesday, September 28th, 2022.
See additional reporting on the scandal by MSN, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, AOL, CBS Sports, and The Guardian.
