I'm sure everyone in Iowa remembers Carson King. He was the kid who got onto College Gameday with a sign asking for donations for his Busch supply, and the amount of donations was so large that he decided to donate the money instead to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital.

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Busch Beer even jumped on board early during Carson's fundraising campaign. In fact, it went viral. This all resulted in them matching a $920k donation to the Children's Hospital.

The spokeswoman for the UI Center for Advancement, told The Gazette, “We have not yet received their donation,” she said the center is working with Busch.

Busch responded by saying:

“We’re working with the University of Iowa hospital system to process our commitment appropriately through its channels as well as ours. As with any transaction or donation, payment terms are handled privately.” Busch executives — via a public relations firm — told The Gazette

Thirty two words to say this: $0.00



On October 2, 2019 I tweeted and asked Busch specifically to outline what their commitment means in light of the campaign coming to an end. This is what they had to say.

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They haven’t paid anything and have been “processing” payment for five months. When they do begin the PAYING part of the “processing”, we will never know about it. Because, they intend to never reveal it. Or, exactly how much. That’s what this line means (which came from their PR firm) “any transaction or donation, payment terms are handled privately.” Why would they donate in private? It just seems fishy to me.

On October 11, 2019, Carson King concluded his fundraising campaign for the UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital and revealed the total:$3 million!

By October 29, 2019, The hospital received $1.9 million of the pledged funds:

Individual donors (35,000+): $920,112.10

Venmo.com: $1,000,000

Busch Beer: $0. (match remains in process)

As of February 19, 2020, here are the updated totals:

Individual donors (35,000+): $920,112.10

Venmo.com: $1,000,000

Busch Beer: $0 (match remains in process)

That’s the number of dollars Busch Beer has paid to the Children’s Hospital.

This could all change today. They could write a check and this would all be over and I would look like a fool, but fact of the matter is they've hired a PR agency and they're going to donate in private.

Why does it matter to me? Because we had Carson on our show multiple times and encouraged our listeners to donate knowing that their money would be matched. So it's our responsibility to follow the progress of the donation.

UPDATE: Here’s Eddie Moye (AB Marketing and Communications Director) with a very good reason why they can’t disclose when the donation will be made:

"The donation is between the company and the hospital," Moye said, and "bringing attention to such a large donation from a corporation minimizes the private donations from others."

It gets better:

“The time that has passed has not been unreasonable, and upwards to a million dollars cannot happen overnight.”

Funny, Venmo didn't seem to have any problems ponying up the cash. Just sayin.