logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
    • Glossary
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Guggenheim and Tate Say “No More” and Sackler Trust Halts New Funding for Now

Ruth McCambridge
March 25, 2019
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
“NO MORE,” Ted Eytan

March 24, 2019; Slate and The Guardian

On Friday, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum became the third museum—after the Tate Modern, which made its announcement on Thursday, and the National Portrait Gallery—and the first in the United States to say it would not accept additional contributions from the Sackler Family.

The Sacklers own Purdue Pharma LC, the manufacturer of OxyContin. Eight family members are currently being sued for their complicity in this country’s opioid addiction crisis by actively promoting what they allegedly knew to be excessive prescribing of the powerful painkiller.

Also, over this past weekend, more than 600 cities, counties, and Native American tribes filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Sacklers of helping to fuel the opioid crisis. The suit alleges that the Sackler family and its companies “intentionally misled doctors and patients” through “financial relationships with academic physicians, professional societies, hospitals, trade associations for state medical boards and seemingly neutral third-party foundations.”

All of this has resulted in the Sackler Trust suspending all new giving. Sackler Trust chairwoman Dame Theresa Sackler issued a statement on behalf of the Trust’s Trustees that reads:

I am deeply saddened by the addiction crisis in America and support the actions Purdue Pharma is taking to help tackle the situation, whilst still rejecting the false allegations made against the company and several members of the Sackler family.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

The current press attention that these legal cases in the United States is generating has created immense pressure on the scientific, medical, educational and arts institutions here in the UK, large and small, that I am so proud to support. This attention is distracting them from the important work that they do.

The trustees of the Sackler Trust have taken the difficult decision to temporarily pause all new philanthropic giving, while still honouring existing commitments. I remain fully committed to all the causes the Sackler Trust supports, but at this moment it is the better course for the trust to halt all new giving until we can be confident that it will not be a distraction for institutions that are applying for grants.

Activist and photographer Nan Goldin would not let the issue rest, however, saying, “I would appreciate the news if I heard that their money was going to pay reparations for the people whose lives they’ve ruined and the communities they’ve destroyed.”

Amen to that.

She calls the Sackler Trust’s suspension of grantmaking a face-saving measure in the wake of public censure that comes when renowned cultural institutions that need their money turn their grants down. With eight family members fighting multiple suits, who needs the constant thrum of bad press? Goldin adds, “There’s 300,000 people dead in this country. Their money should go to in some way pay for all the damage they’ve done.”

The Trust still has some outstanding pledges, of course, and we expect these will be monitored by activists for acceptance or rejection by the nonprofits to which they have been promised. This refusal by arts institutions to help launder bad reputations built through exploitive business is an important step for the sector. It will be important to watch where it goes.—Ruth McCambridge

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

More about: museum ethicsBig PharmaNonprofit Newsopioid addictionPhilanthropy

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

summer_sidebar_subscribe
You might also like
Ruling on Affirmative Action Could Affect Hiring
Isaiah Thompson
Economic Justice: Nonprofit Leaders Speak Out
Dr. Akilah Watkins, Nelson I. Colón, Jon Pratt, Marla Bilonick, Clara Miller, Seema Agnani and Gary L. Cunningham
Public Dollars for Public Good
Carmen Rojas
Child Care Is a National Emergency
Elizabeth Barajas-Román and Shannon Rudisill
Can We Build the Movement Journalism Infrastructure That We Need?
John Duda
Healing the Frontlines of Racial, Climate, and Gender Injustice
Daelin Brown

NPQ Webinars

Oct 5th and 6th, 2:00 PM ET

Mastering QuickBooks 2023

Advanced QuickBooks for Nonprofits for Online Users

Register Now
Oct 26th, 2:00 PM ET

Becoming A Great Manager

How to Conspire and Align with the People You Lead

Register Now
You might also like
Black man holding up a shard of a broken mirror, so that only his eye is visible. He is looking away.
Ruling on Affirmative Action Could Affect Hiring
Isaiah Thompson
Abstract painting titled, “They Have Their Own Dishes” by Yuet Lam-Tsang. The piece features delicate and balanced strokes of white, light green, teal, and gray. There is a shadowy figure at the bottom, and a white outline traversing the painting.
Economic Justice: Nonprofit Leaders Speak Out
Dr. Akilah Watkins, Nelson I. Colón, Jon Pratt, Marla Bilonick, Clara Miller, Seema Agnani and Gary L. Cunningham
Abstract painting titled, “No More Hiding” by Yuet Lam-Tsang. The piece features delicate and balanced strokes of white, light green, orange, and gray.
Public Dollars for Public Good
Carmen Rojas

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Summer 2023 issue

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Funders
  • Magazine Art

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.