The Lenora Fulani-supported All Stars Project – currently under investigation by city and state officials – was among the more than 800 charities that benefited last year from Mayor Bloomberg’s largess.
As he has each year since taking office, Bloomberg made public the astonishingly lengthy list of his annual giving, which totaled $139.3 million in 2004.
That was up from $135.6 million in 2003.
Among the 843 recipients was the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, a “donor-advised” public philanthropic fund that requires a minimum $25,000 contribution.
Donors to the fund get an immediate tax write-off and are able to defer decisions on their charitable selections and shield their identities.
“It puts the ball in our court when to disclose it [the charitable gift],” said one administration source.
Late last year, critics charged Bloomberg was trying to score political points when he was revealed as the anonymous donor who gave $500,000 to save the Dance Theater of Harlem.
It’s not clear how much the mayor has in Vanguard, since the list his office distributed gives only the names of the charities, not how much each received.
In fact, since the mayor is a majority owner of Bloomberg LP, he gets to count its charities as his own.
Still, Bloomberg’s dual role as mayor and as one the nation’s most generous philanthropists has obvious political implications.
For example, the All Stars Project Inc., which has close ties to the Independence Party and one of its leaders, Fulani, received a check from the mayor – who happens to be running for re-election on the party’s ballot line.
State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office and city probers are investigating a complaint about the All Stars’ fund-raising and treatment of children.
Ed Skyler, the mayor’s press secretary, said the contribution represented either a donation or the purchase of tickets to the annual All Stars fund-raiser at Lincoln Center, which Bloomberg attends regularly.
In 2003, the mayor gave money to the Richard Nixon Library Birthplace Foundation. Last year, he didn’t.
Nixon isn’t a popular figure among the Democratic voters Bloomberg is assiduously wooing.
Good-government groups that are usually wary of big money in politics say it’s tough to make a call on whether Bloomberg’s philanthropy crosses any ethical lines.
“It’s a definite gray area,” said Rachel Leon, executive director of Common Cause/NY.
“He’s his own phenomenon. It’s a new world for us when you have someone this wealthy.”
DADDY WARBUCKS
Some of the 843 charities mayor bloomberg gave to last year
All Stars Project Inc.
Broadway Housing
Catalyst for Women
Dominican Women’s Development Center
Gilda’s Club
Ice Hockey in Harlem
New Israel Fund
Princeton Symphony Orchestra
Town of North Castle PBA
Teaching Matters
TOTAL $139,000,000