WSJ: Do Big Donors Really Have the Push We Think They Have?

Senator Rick Scott, the multi-millionaire, likes to brag during his Florida reelection campaigns that he grew up in “public housing.”  That’s pretty much the sum and substance of his appeal to Black and Brown voters.  That he grew up in the projects.  Anyway, a few days ago he implored big donors to stop contributing to Columbia University.  He is pretty much on a campaign against the student protests, which he views as anti-Semitic, and the Universities that tolerate them.  

I’ve done my own handwringing about the outsized influence of big donors and how the tax code perpetuates the advantage.  But there is an interesting and well-produced 8 minute WSJ video about Universities and their revenue sources below.  It begins by dismissing the notion that a “big donor” has the kind of course-changing influence we occasionally assume they have.  At least not with the Ivies, who have billions in their endowments.  

Thankfully, though, the video is hardly about war, big donors and protesting students at all.  It’s an interesting short documentary more about endowments, the way we finance colleges and universities, and how that financing impacts the allocation of tax exempt educational benefits throughout society.  It’s especially worth a listen if you are sick of hush money for a minute.  Look, he did it (probably several times over), he’s gonna get convicted, or maybe he won’t, and he still might end up in the White House. And he must have an absolutely airtight prenup, that’s all I can say.  It is what it is, we have all lost our damn minds anyway.  So we might as well talk about nonprofits and tax exemption.

darryll k. jones