By Mark Crawley from Southampton, UK (Kevin Spacey’s star) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

February 27, 2018; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Over the years, NPQ has covered a number of stories about the travails of foundations tied to celebrities whose reputations were later tarnished. Possibly the best known of these was Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Foundation, where donations fell 85 percent following the racer’s doping scandal, significantly changing the organization’s size and shape. Still, that organization managed to survive—a fate not shared by the Kevin Spacey Foundation in the UK.

Spacey had resigned from the foundation’s board months ago, after the actor was accused by his alleged victims of the sexual abuse of 12 men as young as 14. Spacey served as artistic director of the Old Vic theater for 11 years, and the theater revealed in November that it had received 20 complaints about Spacey related to alleged inappropriate behavior.

The foundation, ironically, was organized to help young people in the performing arts, and this dissonance may have created too high a barrier to be overcome.

“The Trustees have reached the conclusion that the work of the Kevin Spacey Foundation UK is no longer viable and as such the Foundation will be closing on the 28 February 2018,” a statement on the company’s website reads. “The Trustees would like to thank all their partners, artists and organizations for the great work that has been done in association with the Foundation. The Trustees hope that the objects of the charity will be taken forward by other organizations.”—Ruth McCambridge