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Who we are and what we do:
The Casey Lee Ball Foundation is a nonprofit organization where 100% of every dollar donated goes directly to pediatric kidney research. There are over 50 terminal diseases, yet kidney research has no famous spokesperson, no glamour, and as a result, it is dramatically under-funded. Casey Lee Ball, third son of Sterling Ball, President of Ernie Ball, Inc., was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease at age two. At age five, while Casey and Sterling were recuperating from kidney transplant surgery at UCLA, they decided to create the Casey Lee Ball Foundation. The major source of funding for the Casey Lee Ball Foundation has been the Casey Lee Ball Golf Classic, an annual charity golf tournament held with celebrity guests including Bill Murray, Jack Nicholson, Joe Pesci, Andy Garcia, John Brodie, Robert Urich, Wayne Gretzky, Chris Guest, Scott Hamilton, Cheech Marin, Chris Myers, Meatloaf, Steve Vai, Steve Lukather, Alice Cooper, Dweezil Zappa, George Clooney, and more. Now in its twelfth year, the event has evolved into a top level pro-am tournament featuring PGA professionals including Jonathan Kaye, Peter Jacobson, Scott McCarron, Jeff Sluman, Shaun Michael, Rich Beem, and many more. Another source of income comes from auctions held on Ebay. In the past, with the kind generosity of Steve Vai and Christopher Guest (a.k.a. Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap), substantial amounts have been raised. For more information please click here. Since it's inception, The Casey Lee Ball Foundation has raised over five million dollars! This is a true charity. No one will make any money from these auctions except pediatric kidney disease researchers dressed in white coats! Again, every dollar raised goes directly to research. There are no administrative fees, no overhead, and all management, accounting, and legal fees are done pro bono. Our fundraising efforts help to pay for much needed research. As a result of this research, several new medicines have made it to market in record time and are now helping to reduce the side effects of kidney transplant anti-rejection medicines. At present, a transplant is only a treatment, not a cure for kidney disease. When you go to UCLA for Kidney disease treatment, you go to the the Casey Lee Ball Kidney Research Center, where we endowed a chair. This represents a million dollar contribution and one of only six chairs at UCLA that are endowed, ensuring kidney research will go on in perpetuity. More info about Ernie Ball Music Man:
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