Nonprofit Story Connected to Critically Injured Football Player Damar Hamlin

Daniel Libit has a good look at some nonprofit challenges that arose in the wake of the terrible injury to Buffalo Bill player Damar Hamlin against the Cincinnati Bengals a week ago. Damar Hamlin is a former University of Pittsburgh football player as well.

From the story: “In May 2020, heading into his fifth-year senior season at Pittsburgh—and a full year before he was taken by the Buffalo Bills in the sixth round of the NFL Draft—Damar Hamlin filed a two-page Articles of Incorporation with the Pennsylvania Department of State to create the Chasing M’s Foundation. . . . 

Seven months later, on Dec. 14, 2020, Hamlin launched a GoFundMe campaign for his foundation’s first initiative: a $2,500 toy drive for a daycare facility run by his mother, Nina.

Less than 18 hours after Hamlin’s cardiac arrest on the field, the second-year player’s foundation had generated more money ($4 million) in new GoFundMe donations than the entire value of his current four-year contract with the Bills ($3.6 million).

Instead of now chasing millions, the challenge for Hamlin’s charity is in figuring out how to handle them as they flood in.”

The situation inadvertently raises some significant challenges for the law including the raising of money over many states without registering, the limited purpose of the money, and it is not clear that the charity ever filed for exemption from tax with the IRS. 

Philip Hackney