Robert Kraft will not donate his way back into good graces if one charity has anything to say about it.
A $100,000 contribution from the owner of the New England Patriots was turned down earlier this month by Patrick Moynihan, the president of an organization that provides free schooling to upward of 350 impoverished children in Haiti.
“The last thing I wanted was a donation from Robert Kraft,” Moynihan told the Boston Globe. “I could not be silent. I had to stand up.”
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Kraft and his lawyers are fighting allegations that he had paid for sex acts in January at a strip-mall spa. He has pleaded not guilty.
Moynihan called the decision to reject Kraft's donation "gut-wrenching" because large donations are pivotal in sustaining The Haitian Project charity and its Louverture Cleary School near Port-au-Prince. He said the $100,000 would have covered the expenses of an entire year for 50 children.
"$100,000 is hugely significant to us,” Moynihan said. “I represent the needs of people who have a singularly terrible situation — a lack of assets. But we cannot do good by doing bad. The ends cannot justify the means.”
Moynihan said he and The Haitian Project began reaching out to Kraft for a sizable donation in 2017 — even going so far to hand-deliver a packet of information regarding the charity's mission — but those efforts were never acknowledged by Kraft or anyone familiar with the owner until three weeks ago. By then, Moynihan's desire for a donation changed following the public charges against Kraft.
“We educate young women in a country where exploitation of women, specifically prostitution, coerced sex, and trafficking, are all too common," Moynihan said. "Prostitution is never to be taken lightly.”
Moynihan took to Twitter on Monday with a lengthy thread defending his organization's decision to not accept Kraft's donation.
I did not make this decision as an individual but as part of a 25-year-old community that seeks to allow Haitians to reach their full potential. We are unable to take funds from a person that has acted in antithesis to our organization's mission. @MutCallahan https://t.co/0Yj6Hel2tN
— Patrick Moynihan (@_ManofLetters) May 6, 2019
As an intentional community, we have to ensure that our members fully support our mission and efforts to transform Haiti into a country where all people, especially marginalized women, have space to thrive. @MutCallahan
— Patrick Moynihan (@_ManofLetters) May 6, 2019
Nonprofits exist to complete valuable missions, not serve as good PR generators or donor experiments. @MutCallahan
— Patrick Moynihan (@_ManofLetters) May 6, 2019
It is always inappropriate and disruptive to put nonprofits in a position where they are likely laundering the reputation of philanthropists who may see that as a way to circumvent taking responsibility for their actions. @MutCallahan
— Patrick Moynihan (@_ManofLetters) May 6, 2019
If Bob Kraft took full responsibility for his actions and coupled his admission of wrongdoing with donations to organizations like THP then we would consider his actions a true admonition of his actions. However, he has yet to admit his wrongdoing. His gifts remain unacceptable.
— Patrick Moynihan (@_ManofLetters) May 6, 2019
Moynihan is not the first public figure to repurpose a donation from Kraft, who has built a repuation for making philanthropic contributions to charities as owner of the Patriots. Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey, a Democrat, recently redirected $3,600 in campaign contributions from Kraft to organizations that fight human trafficking.