Forbes India – August 4, 2017

peter and maria hoey for forBes

august 4, 2017 forbes india | 27

Eric Trump bobblehead dolls at the
tournament to statements that leave
the impression he’s giving the money
personally, even though tax records
suggest he’s donated six figures
total, at most. (Trump wouldn’t tell
Forbes how much he’s given to his
own foundation. “I think it’s totally
irrelevant,” he says, citing the fact
that “we never charge” for use of
the courses.) But in 2015, a new
intensive-care unit at St Jude opened
with Eric Trump’s name on it, and
the foundation’s money has funded

research into a rare form of cancer.

It’s hard to imagine how the early

incarnation of the golf tournament—

big hauls, understandable

costs—would have any problem

continuing to spew out millions for

years to come. Last year, the Eric

Trump Foundation donated $2.9

million, according to St Jude.

But in December, Eric Trump

said he would stop fundraising.

Running an event with an increasing

commingling of business and

philanthropy created the kind of

conflict-of-interest (not to mention

image) concerns that similarly

plagued Ivanka Trump’s aborted

attempt to auction off a coffee date

on behalf of Eric’s foundation.

More recently, the foundation

has rebranded itself as Curetivity. A

spokeswoman for the organisation

said it would continue hosting golf

tournaments to raise money for St

Jude. A Curetivity event was held

this past May outside Washington,

D.C., with Eric Trump in attendance,

at the Trump National course.

on the Green

How Donald Trump turned charity

money into business revenue

in 2009, outside donors gave $1.1

million to the Donald J Trump

Foundation. The president gave none

of his own money, but that didn’t

stop him from doling out the cash as

if it were his own

in 2010, he gave $100,000 to his

son’s charity with the explicit

intent of offsetting costs for its

annual golf fundraiser and

demanded that the non-profit Eric

Trump Foundation pay his

for-profit business for the event,

according to a former Trump employee

the eric trump foundation hosted

its annual fundraiser at the Trump

National Golf Club in Westchester

County, New York, and dutifully paid

the president’s company

thus, money that started

as charity from others

apparently turned into

revenue for Donald Trump