#76 | Why are charities increasingly at odds with their major donors?

Hugh Culverhouse, Jr. recently explained in an Washington Post op-ed that the University of Alabama returned his $26.5 million gift after he voiced his opinion about the state’s recent abortion bill. Some would say that were it not for this particular divisive issue, such things wouldn’t happen.

I beg to differ. This isn’t the only dispute over a mega-donation in the headlines. Thomas Pearson and his brother Timothy Pearson are suing the University of Chicago to recoup $22.9 million. Last year, major donors to UNLV rescinded a $14 million gift after the president resigned.

With increasing regularity, nonprofit organizations seem to be at odds with their major donors. Rather than draw my own conclusions about what’s happening, I enlisted some other voices. Today’s podcast begins a two-part conversation about the UAB-Culverhouse story with two guests who are a lot closer to the story than I - Randy Kinder, former Executive Director of Annual Giving at UAB, and Daphne Powell, Director of Donor Relations at Birmingham Southern College.

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