Pritzker’s Big Charitable Donations Cost Fed and State Treasuries

J.B. Pritzker is the richest candidate to ever run for Illinois governor and may also be the most charitable. But he has donated what amounts to found money and paid no taxes on the bulk of it before giving it away. He has donated at least $152 million in recent years to a variety of charitable groups, some of them going to causes tied to politicians and activists who support his candidacy. His donations have been funded almost entirely from inherited proceeds, much of it filtered through offshore tax havens and then deposited in a nonprofit he controls. Thus his philanthropy has no real cost to Pritzker but considerable expense to federal and state treasuries. (BGA and Capitol Fax)  
Nancy S Bishop

Nancy S. Bishop is publisher and Stages editor of Third Coast Review. She’s a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and a 2014 Fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. You can read her personal writing on pop culture at nancybishopsjournal.com, and follow her on Twitter @nsbishop. She also writes about film, books, art, architecture and design.