Posts tagged University of Oxford
Philanthropic funding can be a risky game for universities
Philanthropic funding can be a risky game for universities

The University of Oxford’s relationship to the tainted Sackler family’s charitable trusts speaks to the challenge of donor risk management across a complex institution which is both a world-class research university and a treasured United Kingdom institution.

The most recent outcry follows a Financial Times investigation into solicitations made to the Sackler family, former owners of Purdue Pharma, which in 2020 agreed a settlement of more than US$8 billion over its role in fuelling the United States opioid epidemic. Purdue Pharma was owned by members of the Sackler family until it was dissolved in 2021 in the wake of the scandal.

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Andrew WigleyUniversity of Oxford, Sackler family, Sackler family philanthropy, US Congress, opioid epidemic, donor risk management, philanthropy, university philanthropy, fundraisign, fundraising
Oxford, Vietnam and the business of philanthropic risk
Oxford, Vietnam and the business of philanthropic risk

The £155m donation to the University of Oxford by Vietnamese business woman Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao which will lead to the renaming of the University’s Linacre College in her honour places a spotlight on how many of the leading universities fundraise. This one was bound to cause a stir. Oxford is the jewel in the crown and the renaming of one its colleges – a rare event but not without precedence – would beg questions about the role of overseas money in influencing British higher education and fundamentally changing the character of one of the nation’s great institutions.

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Andrew WigleyOxford, University of Oxford, Linacre, Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Thao College, Fundraising, Philanthropy, Wadham College, Rock, Vanderbilt University, Sunday Times Rich List
History and Hungary: George Soros and his university philanthropy

At UniversityPhilanthropy.com we wanted to understand which institutions George Soros’ network of foundations was funding, and where are they. What we hadn’t appreciated is just how complex an undertaking that would be. The challenge is the highly devolved and disparate character of Soros’s philanthropic efforts. Said to be operating in over 120 countries, there are different foundations in different geographies.

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Andrew WigleyGeorge Soros, Open Society Foundations, Foundation to Promote Open Society, Hungary, Central European University, Bard College, Leo Botstein, Michael Ignatieff, Viktor Orbán, John Shattuck, Universities, University, philanthropy, philanthrocapitalism, university philanthropy, Higher education, Soros, Soros Fund Charitable Foundation, Open Society Institute, Soros Economic Development Fund, Columbia University, Harvard University, New York University, University of Oxford, American University of Central Asia, CIVICA university network, London School of Economics, Open Society Justice Initiative, American University, Arizona State University, American University of Bulgaria
Philanthro-capitalism and universities: Enabler or ossifier?
Andrew Wigleyuniversity, philanthropy, university philanthropy, philanthrocapitalism, higher education, philanthropic culture, philanthropic patterns of giving, Paul Vallely, elite, elite institutions, Oxford, Harvard, University of Oxford, University of Cape Town, Africa, UK, US, Ivy League, Carnegie, Mellon, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Wellcome Trust, High Net Worth Individual, Ultra High Net Worth Individual, Millionaires, University of Kent Centre for Philanthropy, Coutts