Saturday, March 15, 2025
Column 680
Darts players are generous – but BEWARE OF GRIFTERS!
One constant about dart players is they are generous – they support each other and causes they care about. Leagues all over the world regularly run events to raise funds for various charities or to help players and families in need.
Consider Paddy Power’s “The Bigger 180” campaign during the 2025 World Championship. Paddy Power pledged to donate £1,000 for every maximum thrown (there were 970) plus £60,000 for every 9-dart finish. Prostate Cancer UK benefited to the tune of more than £1,000,000.
Consider former world champions John Lowe and Keith Deller (both who have been awarded MBEs recognizing their darting achievements and, notably, their tremendous support for multiple charities). Each has raised millions of pounds for charities such as the Tenerife Breast Cancer Association and Macmillian Cancer Support.
Consider Johnny Kuczynski’s Toys for Tots tournaments which since 2008 have raised more than $530,000, Gary Yourman’s “Darts for Dreams” campaigns which since 2006 have raised more than $800,000 for Make-A-Wish New Jersey and the late Stacy Bromberg’s “Score for Charity Foundation” which raised more than $100,000 for Make-A-Wish Southern Nevada (Howie Reed has picked up the mantle on this). And there’s the always dependable Rob Heckman who took the lead raising funds to help survivors in the wake of the December 2014 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.
The list is endless. From local community causes to global initiatives, darts players have given generously of their time and wallets for a wide range of charities – from health and medical charities to military and veterans charities to mental health charities, children’s charities, disability charities, education and development charities, animal welfare charities and for disaster relief, and more. There’s Darts for Diabetes, Darts for Dogs and Bulls for Boobies.
If the money raised globally throughout the years by darts players to help others could somehow be calculated the figure would surely total in the hundreds of millions. Lives have been saved.
Now consider another example: should any dart player, should anybody anywhere, donate to support any cause, were the following true and verifiable (and it is)?
Imagine if a charity’s board of directors has:
- Seen its executive director accused multiple times of sexual harassment – once settling for approximately $100,000 and attorney’s fees,
- Seen an alarming 40+ people fired or quit during the same executive director’s few-year tenure,
- Allowed and continues to pay multiple (6-plus among a staff of 25+) family members and spouses and family friends to work for the organization (two who serve on the board, one paid) while many, perhaps most, charities and businesses have strict policies against nepotism),
- Routinely authorized several staff to fly first class and stay in premier hotels,
- Taken little effective action as income has nosedived year after year – resulting in huge reductions in services,
- Seen its database stolen by someone its executive director hired,
- Let gross exaggerations and sometimes outright lies be put in front of donors (no less over the co-founder’s signature) to raise money,
- Seemed to accept that just a fraction of the funds raised (perhaps 20 percent) is donated directly to help the projects for which funds are solicited,
- Reported (legally but deceptively) on its US IRS Form 990 filings that no one in the US is compensated when in fact the co-founder alone receives several hundred thousand dollars annually (from another country to which almost all funds raised in the US are transferred).
- Inexplicably, continued to empower and employ the aforementioned executive director…
…let alone ALL OF THIS, and MUCH MORE?
Would YOU support such an organization? This is real – and it’s one of many.
The sad reality is that not all charities are good.
For example, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) allegedly pays its CEO a base salary of nearly $1,000,000 (plus benefits) and spends 80-plus percent of every dollar donated on overheads and fundraising. Since its founding in 2010, 600 Million Stray Dogs Need You has raised a ton of money while claiming to have several scientists developing a pill to sterilize street dogs and control overpopulation but 15 years later has no viable pill (and can’t seem to name a single scientist who has worked on the project). The Kids Wish Network has been rated as one of the worst charities in the United States – allegedly spending only THREE CENTS of every dollar donated on wish-granting. The Wounded Warrior Project has also long been judged as among the worst charities in America. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is alleged to have put to death nearly 98 percent of the dogs it has “saved.” This list is also endless. 
When darts players raise money and/or donate, to make informed choices it behooves all of us to investigate the charity that will “benefit.” Check a charity’s IRS tax filings in the US (or the UK Charity Commission). Check with state Attorney General’s offices. Check Charity Navigator. Check GuideStar. Check Charity Watch. Maybe check Glassdoor and Trustpilot – what staff and former staff, and donors, have to say can be illuminating.
But still be wary. Some charities are damn bad. Some are run by mere grifters who pull at donor’s heartstrings to obtain donations and then use the overwhelming majority of funds raised to line their own pockets and live the high life.
Most important (I say this as a darts player by night and having been a fundraising consultant by day for 40-plus years – I have witnessed the good, bad and ugly), one should have trust in those undertaking the fundraising – those vouching for the integrity of the charity on behalf of which they are asking for your support. If in doubt donate elsewhere.
In my book, darts players are in good hands anytime Johnny Kuczynski, Gary Yourman, John Lowe, Keith Deller, Rob Heckman (and SO many others that we all know well) are leading the charge.
From the field,
Dartoid
