Payton foundation won't take money from disgruntled fans
You would think a charitable foundation wouldn't decline donations in a tough economy.
Yet, the Walter & Connie Payton Foundation, which has a mission to help in the development of underprivileged children, rejected an overture by the Bears Fans United Campaign because it didn't want to get in the middle of a spat over the football team's poor performance this season.
Bears Fans United, the Web site mounted by disgruntled fans, offered to donate some of the proceeds from a fundraising campaign for a billboard calling for the Chicago Bears ownership to fire Head Coach Lovie Smith and General Manager Jerry Angelo.
The billboard was installed Wednesday on Hintz Road, just west of Schoenbeck Road in Arlington Heights.
In the week since launching the Web site, bearfansunited.org, the group has raised about $6,500 from Bears fans around the world for the billboard, which costs $3,000.
Web site spokesman and founder Andrew Gasser had said the goal is to raise $13,000 to buy full-page newspaper advertisements, and pledged anything leftover to the Walter & Connie Payton Foundation.
The billboard idea sparked from an online rant on the team's official Web site.
However, a written statement from the Payton foundation's attorneys released Thursday read: "due to the extensive regulations regarding our not-for-profit status and our involvement with the state of Illinois Department of Child and Family Services, the foundation's policy is to remain neutral on all issues and focus on its mission."
The statement went on to read the Paytons "neither endorsed nor had any involvement with the Bears Fans United Campaign, nor were they aware of the existence of the Web site and organization."
A spokeswoman for the foundation could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Bears Fans United officials are upset over the foundation's refusal to accept their offering.
"We were all in shock," said Gasser of Fox River Grove. "We just wanted to give to (a charity) that was associated with the Bears because we are all Bears fans first and foremost. We just have to find a new charity."
Gasser said since the billboard went up, the group has received a lot of donations and media attention, as well as accusations of misrepresenting itself as a charity.
"It's really a shame because nobody is trying to cheat the IRS; nobody is trying to defame anyone," Gasser said. "The ultimate goal of the whole thing is to get Jerry Angelo, Lovie Smith and his coaching staff fired. They've been an absolute disaster since the Super Bowl, and they haven't developed any talent."