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Person

Rachel Pritzker

Nationalitty:

American
Occupation:

Philanthropist and Political Donor

Rachel Pritzker Hunter is the president and founder of the Pritzker Innovation Fund. [1] She is a member of the Pritzker political family of billionaires [2] that founded and operated Hyatt Hotels and hold deep ties to the Democratic Party as donors and officeholders. [3]

She is the daughter of Linda Pritzker, a former member of the Forbes 400 richest Americans list [4] and a major Democratic donor. [5] Pritzker Hunter has been involved with other left-of-center organizations such as the Democracy Alliance, Media Matters for America and Third Way. [6] She is also a major Democratic donor in her own right. [7]

Career

Rachel Pritzker Hunter is the president and founder of the Pritzker Innovation Fund, a left-of-center grantmaker that gives to think tanks, academic organizations, and advocacy organizations focused on energy and the environment. [8] In the early 2000s, Hunter was a founding board member of the Democracy Alliance, [9] a collective of left-of-center donors who have been active in orchestrating the activities of various left-of-center organizations and individuals. [10] She has served as a founding board member of Media Matters for America, [11] a left-of-center critic of conservative media outlets. [12]

Hunter is the president and director of the Lotus Foundation, a grantmaking organization that has supported Media Matters for America, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and Progress Now Education. [13] She is also the chair of the board of the Breakthrough Institute, [14] pro-nuclear-energy environmentalist organization co-founded by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger in 2007. It promotes an alternate environmentalist program it calls “ecomodernism” and seeks to help the environment by making low-carbon energy cheap. [15] Hunter is also the co-chair of the energy program of Third Way, [16] a left-of-center think tank and advocacy organization. [17]

Political Donations

During the 2008 election, Hunter gave $1.1 million to a left-of-center 527 group called Bring Ohio Back for a series of ads criticizing then-Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), claiming that he was confused when it came to economics. [18]

During the 2009-10 election cycle, Hunter was one of the 10 biggest individual political donors in federal elections. She was one of the only Democratic donors in the top ten. [19] She has donated to various major Democratic politicians and organizations throughout her life. One of the organizations is the Democratic National Committee, [20] the principal party organ of the Democratic Party.[21] Pritzker also donated to the presidential campaigns of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [22] and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). [23]

References

  1. Pritzker Innovation Fund. Accessed October 29, 2021. https://www.pritzkerinnovationfund.org/. ^
  2. Novack, Janet. “Four Of The 400 Richest Make 10 Biggest Political Donors List.” Forbes. Last modified November 12, 2011. https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2011/12/13/four-of-the-400-richest-make-10-biggest-political-donors-list/?sh=3277ab916636. ^
  3. “#9 Pritzker family.” Forbes. Accessed October 26, 2021. https://www.forbes.com/profile/pritzker/?sh=5d40a29b70f2. ^
  4. Novack, Janet. “Four Of The 400 Richest Make 10 Biggest Political Donors List.” Forbes. Last modified November 12, 2011. https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2011/12/13/four-of-the-400-richest-make-10-biggest-political-donors-list/?sh=3277ab916636. ^
  5. “Browse Individual Contributions.” FEC.gov. Accessed October 29, 2021. https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Linda+Pritzker. ^
  6. “Rachel Pritzker.” The Breakthrough Institute. Last modified July 9, 2018. https://thebreakthrough.org/people/rachel-pritzker. ^
  7. Novack, Janet. “Four Of The 400 Richest Make 10 Biggest Political Donors List.” Forbes. Last modified November 12, 2011. https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2011/12/13/four-of-the-400-richest-make-10-biggest-political-donors-list/?sh=3277ab916636. ^
  8. Pritzker Innovation Fund. Accessed October 29, 2021. https://www.pritzkerinnovationfund.org/. ^
  9. “ LittleSis: Rachel Pritzker.” LittleSis. Accessed October 28, 2021. https://littlesis.org/person/131648-Rachel_Pritzker#. ^
  10. Edsall, Thomas B. “Opinion: Are Liberals Fundraising Hypocrites?” New York Times. September 30, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/01/opinion/are-liberals-fundraising-hypocrites.html?_r=0. ^
  11. “Rachel Pritzker.” Breakthrough Institute. Last modified July 9, 2018. https://thebreakthrough.org/people/rachel-pritzker. ^
  12. “About Us.” Media Matters for America. Accessed October 29, 2021. https://www.mediamatters.org/about-us. ^
  13. “LOTUS FOUNDATION.” Grantmakers.io. Accessed October 29, 2021. https://www.grantmakers.io/profiles/v0/201252591-lotus-foundation/. ^
  14. “Rachel Pritzker.” Breakthrough Institute. Last modified July 9, 2018. https://thebreakthrough.org/people/rachel-pritzker. ^
  15. “About.” Breakthrough Institute. Last modified July 25, 2018. https://thebreakthrough.org/about. ^
  16. “Rachel Pritzker.” The Breakthrough Institute. Last modified July 9, 2018. https://thebreakthrough.org/people/rachel-pritzker. ^
  17. “About.” Third Way. Accessed October 29, 2021. https://www.thirdway.org/about. ^
  18.  Evans, Will. “Liberal Nutritionists Against McCain.” NPR.org. Last modified November 1, 2008. https://www.npr.org/sections/secretmoney/2008/11/bring_ohio_back.html. ^
  19. Novack, Janet. “Four Of The 400 Richest Make 10 Biggest Political Donors List.” Forbes. Last modified November 12, 2011. https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2011/12/13/four-of-the-400-richest-make-10-biggest-political-donors-list/?sh=3277ab916636. ^
  20. “LittleSis: Rachel Pritzker.” LittleSis. Accessed October 28, 2021. https://littlesis.org/person/131648-Rachel_Pritzker?relationships=donation_recipients#. ^
  21. “Policy and Structure.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed October 28, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Democratic-Party/Policy-and-structure#ref797890. ^
  22. LittleSis: Rachel Pritzker.” LittleSis. Accessed October 28, 2021. https://littlesis.org/person/131648-Rachel_Pritzker?relationships=donation_recipients#. ^
  23.  LittleSis: Rachel Pritzker.” LittleSis. Accessed October 28, 2021. https://littlesis.org/person/131648-Rachel_Pritzker?relationships=donation_recipients#. ^
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