Dilemma for nonprofits: Museums spurn cash from family tied to opioids

Nonprofits need donors, but at what reputational cost?

Outcry has been building over donations from the Sackler family, who own Purdue Pharma, which has been inextricably linked to the opioid crisis in the U.S. The family now faces a lawsuit brought by more than 600 cities, counties and Native American tribes.

CNN reported:

Like other suits that have been filed, this one alleges the Sackler family made a fortune by using deceptive marketing to sell addictive and potentially deadly painkillers.

“Eight people in a single family made the choices that caused much of the opioid epidemic,” the suit says, then naming the eight defendants.

“Because they controlled their own privately held drug company, the Sackler Defendants had the power to decide how addictive narcotics were sold. They got more patients on opioids, at higher doses, for longer, than ever before. They paid themselves billions of dollars. They are responsible for addiction, overdose, and death that damaged millions of lives. They should be held accountable now.”