Plenty of NFL players have foundations. Plenty of those foundations are not properly managed.
The Arizona Republic took a look at the issue last year. Now, the Republic reports that the foundation run by Steelers defensive lineman Cam Heyward has similar flaws.
Per the report, The Cameron Heyward Foundation had its tax-exempt status revoked by the IRS in May 2022 for failing to file federal tax returns for three straight years. The status was reinstated in November 2023, but the foundation never registered to solicit donations in Pennsylvania.
Also, it “is missing or has otherwise failed to account for tens of thousands of dollars.” The Republic pegs the number of missing dollars at 226 thousand.
It appears to be an issue of Heyward, like other players, not knowing what needs to be done in order to do it right.
“Cameron is such a good person,” his mother, Charlotte Heyward-Wesley, told the Republic last month. “And nothing we have done — and our bank statements can prove that — has ever been malicious. I just don’t want him tarnished when we were misguided and not informed.”
Heyward nevertheless won the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year award for 2023. According to the Republic, at least 25 of the 32 nominees for the award had created a tax-exempt entity.
“From a big-picture standpoint, I would love to see education continue to get brought to light here,” agent Michael Perrett, who represents Heward, told the Republic. “I think this is an area where there isn’t probably a lot of education or a lot of time spent educating players.”
In Heyward’s situation, the problem traces to Erik Bescher, who prepared the foundation’s tax returns from 2015 through 2018. Bescher told the Republic that he just couldn’t do the work properly.
“Charlotte should have been able to trust me,” Bescher said. “And if she did not get a clear understanding that I stopped doing those because I was in over my head, that’s my fault for not telling her. It’s not her fault. It’s not Cameron’s. I will accept full responsibility for making the mistakes. But it was not done with malice. I just wanted to help an old friend because she didn’t know where to turn.”
Charlotte Heyward-Wesley emphasized to the Republic that “we do want to make all things correct and help others not to make the same mistakes.”
Amen to that. A foundation requires a lot of work. As noted by CharityWatch executive director Laurie Styron to the Republic, “These are public dollars. Charities are not pet projects or private businesses.”
Given the apparent prevalence of these issues, it makes sense for the league, the NFL Players Association, and/or the teams to give the players specific guidance and advice when setting up tax-exempt charities. If not, someone eventually could get in the kind of trouble that can easily be fixed by filing missing tax returns — especially if there’s missing money in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
