Ben Roethlisberger's charitable foundation is going to the dogs, which is exactly the way he wants it.
In July, the Steelers quarterback set aside more than $100,00 to start a foundation to provide companion dogs for the blind, the disabled, and emergency personnel.
"I've always been a dog person," Roethlisberger said. "And I've got a lot of police friends, so I know there's never enough police dogs out there."
Roethlisberger's foundation last month made its first grant, $9,000, to purchase a new drug-sniffing canine for the police department in his hometown of Findlay, Ohio.
It might seem like a modest start, but Roethlisberger believes it will lead to bigger things. He plans to start a children's aid program that will be called Big Ben's Little Friends.
"I have so much," said Roethlisberger, who is in the third year of a $40 million contract. "So why not give back to people who don't have as much?"
Roethlisberger is following the example of three other local pros who stand out as exceptional examples of philanthropy: Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch, Penguins great Mario Lemieux and WNBA star Swin Cash.
They take slightly different approaches -- Batch promotes education, Lemieux attacks cancer, Cash aids at-risk kids -- but they share a common sentiment.
"It's kind of a daunting task, but I have faith in God and I know what direction I want to go with this," Cash said. "I think it's important for me to give back to my hometown because of how much it's given to me. "
Lemieux Foundation
Extraordinary incomes allow professional athletes to become extraordinary philanthropists. For some, starting a foundation is a way to take fundraising to a higher level.
Starting a foundation is a more complicated approach, but with potentially greater impact. A foundation can run an event, such as a golf tournament or camp, and advertise it. That can reap more sponsorships, which will cover the expenses of the event and increase the charitable payout.
"When a big athlete puts his name on a foundation, it's going to carry a lot of clout," said Steve Piascik, a Richmond, Va.-based financial advisor for several NFL, NBA and major league baseball players. "It's not simply writing a check. It means giving a lot of time and work, but the community will benefit a lot more."
Lemieux was inspired to start his foundation after beating Hodgkin's disease in 1993. As a public charity, The Lemieux Foundation gets the bulk of its money from individual donations, and makes its grants to non-profit groups.
"The Lemieux Foundation is not a short-term project but a life-long opportunity for me to give hope to patients and families facing what I know is a frightening battle," Lemieux said.
In 2001, the foundation made a $5 million grant to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to establish a center for patient care and research. It issued $2.5 million in grants in 2003. That money helped UPMC recruit three nationally recognized researchers.
"This is rather different than what I've experienced with most celebrities," said Ron Herberman, director of the UPMC Cancer Institute. "The usual thing is for them to lend their name and that's it. What Mario has done through his foundation is provide quite a bit of money."
Last year, the Children's Home of Pittsburgh, which offers an adoption program and other children's services, got $2 million from the Lemieux Foundation.
One of the foundation's more recent endeavors has been The Playroom Project at area hospitals for siblings who need a place to go while parents are with their sick children. Austin's Playrooms -- named after Lemieux's own prematurely-born son Austin -- feature bright colors, kid-sized furniture, puzzles, games and videos. Thursday, Lemieux's wife, Nathalie, cut the ribbon for the newest Austin's Playroom at Somerset Hospital.
Glenda Davis, director of the neonatal intensive care unit at Magee-Women's Hospital, said the playroom there is always in use. Davis, who first met Lemieux and his wife when Austin was born, called the couple "remarkable" for turning their personal hardships into vehicles to help others.
"Through their own experiences and what happened to them, they realize what the needs are of the community and have helped give back to the community what the community gave to them," Davis said. "Everybody gives back in their own way what they can afford, but they really are able to offer more and they aren't selfish."
Dr. Alan Russell, director of the McAllen Institute for Regenerative Medicine at UPMC, said that Lemieux is "quite unique" in his dedication to funding medical research.
"I think a lot of people get very touched by a vision of improving the opportunities for people that get sick," Russell said. "But as a prominent person, particularly a sports figure, his dedication to that is very clear. He clearly has a very unique impact on our local environment."
Much of the Lemieux Foundation's success is due to its annual golf tournament. Several tourney sponsors are companies that are owned and/or managed by members of the foundations board.
The first Mario Lemieux Celebrity Invitational in 1995 netted $75,000. The past seven tourneys have generated more than $1 million apiece.
Through eBay, the foundation auctions autographed memorabilia and other items, with 100 percent of the sale prices going to the foundation.
Best of the Batch
Batch formed the Best of the Batch Foundation in 2000, while he was playing for the Detroit Lions, as a way to help inner-city kids in Detroit. After he signed with the Steelers in 2002, Batch, a Homestead native and Steel Valley High School graduate, redirected his foundation's focus to his hometown.
Best of the Batch is a private non-operating foundation, which means it raises its funds from investments and endowments.
The fund has developed after-school programs in Homestead, a community where 23 percent of families have incomes below the poverty line. The fund also awards scholarships and rewards elementary school students for good grades with field trips.
Batch personally picked up a $50,000 tab to refurbish several playground hoops courts. Every December, he rounds up teammates to help with the Toys for Tots toy drive.
Best of the Batch also conducts a community clean-up day, donates equipment to the Steel Valley Midget Football Association, and sponsors career and education assistance for adults.
Batch and Me is a speaker series program which motivates student athletes to excel both academically and athletically.
The more ambitious Best of the Batch program is Project C.H.U.C.K. (Continuously Helping Uplift Community Kids), which sponsors a youth basketball league in Homestead.
The six-week summer hoops league -- a 20-game schedule, plus playoff tournament -- is open to boys and girls ages 7-18. Games are held at the 16th Avenue Playground and Barrett Elementary School.
Players begin showing up for practice every day around 3 p.m. and games run daily from 5-10 p.m. Batch, who was raised in a single-parent family -- his mom, Lynn Settles, works for the foundation -- knows it's important to keep kids off the streets.
"At least you know from 3 to 10, your kid is going to be with me," Batch said, smiling. "We keep them busy the whole time. That means by the time they're done playing, they're tired and want to go home and go to sleep. That's the whole goal."
With more than 300 players in 2006, the league has doubled in size since tipping off four years ago. Batch, who stops by the camp every day during the summer, is assisted by 80 volunteers.
"People from outside are trying to come into Homestead -- not just because of the Waterfront (shopping complex) but because of what we're doing, and that feels good," Batch said.
Cash for Kids
Cash, a forward for the WNBA's Detroit Shock, set up Cash for Kids as a pubic charity instead of a non-operating foundation. That way, she can directly assist individuals as well as non-profit groups.
"When I had an opportunity, I really wanted to do something to give back," said Cash, who lived as a child in public housing in McKeesport. "The one thing for me is always to try to inspire kids."
Recently, Cash for Kids gave a grant to a high school student in the McKeesport area -- for privacy reasons, Cash did not want to divulge the student's name or school -- who is raising money to participate in an exchange-student program in Europe.
"You can't do that with a (non-operating) foundation," Cash said. "It was important to me to have more control like that, because I think you sometimes can touch more people that way."
Cash began her foundation in May 2005, funding it out of her own pocket. Cash for Kids supports music, theater and dance programs for children. She also helped renovate a resource center at Detroit's Ferguson Academy for Young Women, an alternative high school with more than 400 students who either have a child or are pregnant.
"I've given Swin a lot of credit, because she's picked some really touchy subjects and has handled them well," said Lisa Pelofsky, the director of Cash for Kids.
"Everyone wants to help unwed mothers, but no one really wants to talk about the problem. Those programs are often underfunded. Swin is not afraid to take on these kinds of tough projects."
So far, most of Cash's charity work has been done in Detroit, where she spends most of her time. But she vows to do more in McKeesport in the future -- and issued a challenge to other local athletes to join her.
"I would love to get with (NFL players) Brandon (Short), Mike Logan and other people who've come from the McKeesport area and figure out a way to give back," Cash said. "With just one person you can do a small step. But when you put a whole bunch of people together, there's going to be a bigger effect. That's something we can look into."
Tribune-Review staff writers Karen Price and John Harris contributed to this story.
Additional Information:
How they do it
An athlete who wants to establish a charitable foundation has three options: a public charity, a private non-operating foundation or a donor-advised fund:
• A donor-advised fund gains tax-exempt status by being affiliated with a public non-profit group, such as the Los Angeles-based Giving Back Fund. The athlete can dictate where his money will go and the sponsoring organization oversees daily operations.
• A public charity, such as the Mario Lemieux Foundation and the Jerome Bettis Bus Stops Here Foundation, receives a substantial portion of its income from the general public and/or the government.
• A private non-operating foundation gets most of its income from investments and endowments. One example is the Best of the Batch Foundation, set up by Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch.
Some local athletes are doing so by establishing their own charitable foundations
