The Sackler Trust, a British charitable body funded by the family fortune linked to the opioid epidemic, has chosen to keep the identities of two organisations secret after awarding them grants totalling more than £1.1 million. The trust stated that naming them would expose the recipients to "serious prejudice" and harm their charitable work.
Grants Amidst Ongoing Controversy
According to its latest accounts, filed on New Year's Eve 2024, the trust distributed £3.8 million to arts, education, and science bodies during the year. This marks a continuation of its grant-making activities, which were publicly paused in 2019 but quietly resumed the following year.
The largest publicly named beneficiaries were Veterans Aid and the Belvoir Cricket and Countryside Trust, each receiving £250,000. Other named recipients of £60,000 or more included groups such as the Peterborough Asylum and Refugee Community Association, the Waterlife Recovery Trust, and the Mustard Tree.
The Shadow of Purdue Pharma and OxyContin
The trust's activities remain deeply controversial due to the Sackler family's ownership of Purdue Pharma, the company that developed and aggressively marketed the addictive painkiller OxyContin. This link has led major UK cultural institutions, including The National Gallery, Tate, and the Royal Opera House, to sever ties and refuse further donations from the family's philanthropic arms.
The trust's accounts reveal that 98 grants were issued in 2024, up from 69 the previous year, with total commitments of £7.4 million outstanding at the year's end. The trust's assets are reported to total £50 million.
Leadership and Legal Settlements
The trust continues to be chaired by Dame Theresa Sackler, the widow of Mortimer Sackler, one of the founding brothers of Purdue Pharma. Dame Theresa, who served on Purdue's board from 1993 to 2018, is supported as trustees by her three children.
This comes as a US bankruptcy judge, Sean Lane, indicated in November that he would approve a settlement requiring Sackler family members to contribute up to $7 billion (£5 billion) and relinquish ownership of Purdue Pharma to resolve thousands of lawsuits related to the opioid crisis. The family's philanthropy, funded by OxyContin profits, has frequently been criticised as an attempt at "reputation laundering".
When the trust initially paused donations in 2019, Dame Theresa expressed being "deeply saddened by the addiction crisis in America" while continuing to reject allegations against the company and family members. The Sackler Trust did not provide further comment on the latest accounts.
