The Handles Foundation is the nonprofit of Chris “Handles” Franklin — Harlem Globetrotters head coach, Harrisburg native, and the man who has run a free summer basketball camp in his own hometown for more than twenty consecutive years.
Every figure below comes from the foundation's own website, the IRS Business Master File, a named news report, or Chris Franklin's own accounts. Nothing here is estimated, and where a claim is the foundation's own it says so.
No tickets, no fees, no merchandise. The only money that moves is money coming in to pay for it all.
A one-day camp for boys and girls aged 8–14 at HACC's Evans Physical Education Center in Harrisburg, 9am to 3pm. Campers rotate through skills groups — shooting, passing, rebounding — then break for life-skills sessions on nutrition, leadership and money. The 2023 edition was the 21st consecutive year and drew more than 100 children; the 2026 edition drew more than 100 again.
What happens at campA free neighbourhood celebration in Edgemont, Susquehanna Township — the park Franklin played in as a child and paid $42,000 to renovate in 2021. Past editions have included free food, ice cream, horseback riding, bounce houses, a magician, face painting, basketball and card tournaments, educational exhibits, a penny candy store, free haircuts from local barbershops and music.
Read the storyThanksgiving turkeys handed out free across Harrisburg. The sixth annual giveaway ran one day across four locations — Edgemont Fire Hall, the Boys & Girls Club on Hanover Street, the Nativity School and Music Man Entertainment — from noon to 2pm.
Who backs it
Franklin grew up in Hall Manor in Harrisburg and graduated from Susquehanna Township High School. He has spent most of his adult life on the road with the Harlem Globetrotters — by his own count, 84 countries and territories — and he has come back every summer anyway.
The foundation's stated mission is to improve the lives of youth and the community through education, athletics, health awareness, financial competency, social skills and character. In practice that has meant rehabbed playgrounds, turkeys given away, community days, and a basketball camp that has never charged a child to attend.
In 2024 he went further, backing an affordable-housing development in the city he grew up in.
Giving back to the city of Harrisburg has always been something near and dear to my heart. I grew up in Hall Manor and currently live a few blocks away from those same projects, so being able to help really hits home for me.
Photographs published by the Handles Foundation itself, on handlesfoundation.org.
