Jon Pratt, ’77 alum and Executive Director of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, published an article in Responsive Philanthropy on the benefits and downsides of receiving large gifts from major donors.

Jon Pratt writes, "Donating and volunteering are publicized as testimony to the compassion and public of a donor, but public recognition is naturally hedged by opinions of the motivation of the donor or the morality of how the funds were attained."

There are other downsides. Pratt writes, "Delivering the levels of recognition warranted by mega-gifts can complicate the workings of major institutions that want to avoid being used as public foils to cleanse or burnish the reputations of tainted donors."

Read the full article in Responsive Philanthropy, "Philanthropy Makes Amends? Bad Boys, Generosity and Absolution (and When to Take Their Name Off the Building)"