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Ballmer's Investments Go Beyond Clippers, Into Community Outreach

Ballmer Group has given more than $300M alone to 70 nonprofits in the last three yearsNBAE/getty images

Clippers Owner STEVE BALLMER's financial and emotional investments in the team have become "well documented" since he bought the franchise in '14, but his investments "extend far beyond basketball," according to Andrew Greif of the L.A. TIMES. Nonprofit leaders said that Ballmer has "proven to be just as passionate about fighting economic and racial inequity -- a stance they say he and his wife, CONNIE, took long before sports leagues, schools and businesses rushed to address racism and align themselves with the Black Lives Matter movement after GEORGE FLOYD’s death." When the Ballmers founded Ballmer Group five years ago, it was to "improve the lives of children and families." Ballmer Group says it has given more than $300M alone in the last three years to "fund the work of more than 70 nonprofits working in communities of color from Detroit, where Ballmer was raised, to Seattle, where the Ballmers live," and L.A. The Ballmers said that the $300M figure "represents only the start of their contributions." At the height of the Floyd protests, Clippers players, coaches and staffers "began asking how they could take action," and Ballmer Group's list of vetted organizations working in predominantly Black communities "was shared internally." The Clippers are "planning videos in which players will detail personal stories of facing racism." The idea "came from players out of a virtual team meeting, which Ballmer attended, that often turned emotional" (L.A. TIMES, 7/8).

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