A football-coach-turned Alabama Senate candidate, who took out an offensive ad about Colin Kaepernick, is under fire over his charitable foundation.
Tommy Tuberville, who is running for a seat in the U.S. Senate in Alabama, founded the charity in 2014 to help veterans. A review of tax records by The New York Times found that less than a third of the money raised went to veterans. The Better Business Bureau recommends a charity spends at least 65% on program expenses.
The Times asked a retired partner of Ernst & Young to review the foundation’s public tax filings.
“For a very small charity, you have these huge expenses,” David Nelson told the news outlet. “The other thing that jumped out is that out of the amounts of money they collected, a relatively small amount was being directed to charitable activities.”
The campaign released records for 2018 show the foundation spent almost $20,000 on the foundation’s programs. Still, the documents also show the company raised more than twice what was reported to the I.R.S., raising questions about their bookkeeping practices.
According to Nelson, the foundation filed the wrong tax form one year, and the public records pointed to sloppy bookkeeping.
Tuberville’s campaign manager, Paul Shashy, said in a statement, “It seems that any criticism of the foundation, its size, and its work argues that a man who was generous, selfless and charitable with his own money simply wasn’t generous, selfless and charitable enough.”
“That is an unfair, arbitrary, and subjective standard that simply cannot be met,” he added.
Shashy claims Tuberville’s father inspired the foundation, a veteran who took part in the Normandy landing.
Tuberville currently holds a double-digit lead over his opponent in the race, Douglas Jones. His popularity stems from his time as a football coach with Auburn University.
