Ditka defends charity but dissolves it

His 2 favorite causes get $300,000 each

By Ray Gibson and David Haugh, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune wires contributed to this report

December 12, 2007

Responding swiftly with action that matched the strong words for which he is known, Mike Ditka said Tuesday he will dissolve one of the charities he helped create to assist disabled and needy Hall of Fame football players.

As an immediate result, Ditka's longtime favorite cause, Misericordia, and his most recent charitable project, the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, each will receive $300,000 in funds.

Ditka's announcement at a news conference came days after a controversy over reports the fund had given out only $57,000 to those players after raising $1.3 million. Ditka originally had flown to Minneapolis for an event staged to announce Vikings center Matt Birk and other active players had donated game checks on behalf of the Gridiron Greats, the charity he helped form earlier this year.

But before Birk pledged $25,000 to the cause, the former Bears coach used the forum to publicly dissolve the charitable fund started in 2004 in his name. The groups have no connection other than both relying on Ditka's celebrity.

The dissolution, confirmed by an attorney for the charity, came as officials of the Mike Ditka Hall of Fame Assistance Trust were defending the fund and contending it donated more than $445,000 to needy players and a home for the developmentally disabled and has $600,000 in the bank to give away.

Ditka, bothered by recent accusations, surprised his advisers with the decision he didn't formalize until Tuesday morning after he landed and made a series of phone calls.

Several bookkeeping errors and other problems led to the Ditka trust underreporting the assistance it had given out, said William Long, an attorney for the trustees, and an accountant for the fund.

"When it was put together, it was done for two reasons," Ditka said in an interview on WMVP-AM 1000, the station he appears on weekly. "It was done to help the children of Misericordia, and the Hall of Fame players who are in dire need, which we have done. We have nothing to be embarrassed about. The money is all there. There is nobody who has received one penny to administrate the trust. These guys have done it all on their own."

Citing three years of the group's federal income tax returns, USA Today reported last week the fund had raised $1.3 million and had given out only $57,000 to needy players in 2006.

"It's not what you raise, it's what you keep after what you raise [and] probably some of the expenses ran a little high in the initial years when we started our trust," Ditka said.

But Long said the charity also gave out $61,500 to needy players in 2004 and another $178,000 so far in 2007. In addition, a clerical error on the group's 2004 tax return showed an expense of a $100,000 management fee when, in fact, it was a donation to Misericordia, a residential facility for developmentally disabled youth. Misericordia officials confirmed Tuesday that the agency had received $149,000 from the charity.

"We have money in the bank. We are completely legit," Robert Krebs, a trustee for the charity said last week.

The charity has not filed its 2006 income tax returns with the Illinois Attorney General's office and will be fined, according to a spokeswoman. Timothy DeBruyne, one of the charity's accountants, said it did file in August a "draft" report that included its 2006 federal tax return and the draft of an uncompleted report from an auditor.

Ditka is not listed as a board member and said he agreed to lend the fund his name only to help it raise funds by sponsoring golf tournaments, a source said.

Auditors are working through the financial figures of the charity in connection with the actual amount of donations by the group.

For philanthropic organizations, a constant concern is how much it costs to raise contributions. Like most states, Illinois never has regulated the costs, although at one point legislators decided not to cap the costs at a percentage after some charities reported huge expenses for professional fundraisers.

Generally, such golf outings are expensive affairs for charitable organizations because of transportation and housing costs for the participants. The tax return of Ditka's charity shows that it brought in a professional firm, Mid-America Sports & Events Group Inc., to actually run the golf outing.

In the first year, the firm was paid $127,000, but that cost is now only $55,000, according to the returns.

Timothy Schulte, president of the Northbrook company, said his firm ran the event from start to finish, handling a full media campaign and arranging for flights and hotels for 40 to 50 members of the football hall of fame. Schulte said such outings are expensive because of the nature of the event.

"We think it has been quite successful," he said of the charity. "It takes a while to get up to speed."

Meanwhile, Gridiron Greats picked up more steam Tuesday.

Jennifer Smith, a spokeswoman for Gridiron Greats, said the infusion of $300,000 from Ditka's fund would "make a major impact" on her group's efforts.

But an even more significant development came when Vikings center Birk became the second active player in three weeks to step forward to donate $25,000 of his check for the Dec. 23 game designated "Gridiron Guardian Sunday."

Birk, a vocal critic of NFL Players Association head Gene Upshaw, was following the lead of Kansas City Chiefs lineman Kyle Turley. Turley was the first player to make such a pledge two weeks ago at Ditka's Chicago restaurant.

Since that day, Turley says he has similar commitments from about 20 players and Ditka also pledged $25,000 to the cause.

Two other well-known Chiefs, Larry Johnson and Tony Gonzalez, the Houston Texans' Ephraim Salaam and the New York Giants' Kawika Mitchell also plan to donate to the fund, the organizers announced.

-----------

rgibson@tribune.com

dhaugh@tribune.com