Raising large chunks of money from wealthy donors is a difficult enough task as it is. But it becomes doubly difficult when you factor in the risk that the person you are raising money from may turn out to be the next Jeffrey Epstein or Richard Sackler. This is the so-called dirty money problem.

Sometimes it’s clear that money is dirty. A good example is the Sackler family. But that is often easier to see in hindsight than when the money is given. In most instances, determining whether the source of the money is clean or dirty is much more ambiguous.

What about a bank that gives generously to the community, but some of its profits come from lending money or handling other financial matters for companies in industries you don’t like, such as oil firms? Do you decline money from JPMorgan Chase because it is one of the world’s biggest lenders to the fossil fuel industry? If the answer is yes, do you take money from a wealthy person who invested in Chase, or perhaps ExxonMobil itself? What about someone who worked at Chase or ExxonMobil—do you take their money?

Many people believe that Amazon is an evil company, but I didn’t hear of any organizations turning down gifts from MacKenzie Scott (Jeff Bezos’ former wife). Quite the contrary. People lavished praise on her and her giving, even though the source of that wealth was what detractors believe is the exploitation of Amazon workers and its monopolistic practices against other retailers.

Read the full article about dirty money by Eric Nee at Stanford Social Innovation Review.