Obama Foundation has its best fundraising year yet, with assets near $1 billion

As his namesake presidential museum rises above the tree line in Chicago’s Jackson Park, the bottom line for former President Barack Obama’s foundation is rising as well.

The Obama Foundation raised $311 million in contributions and grants in 2022, according to the foundation’s annual IRS filing. That’s the largest sum the foundation has raked in since it got started in 2017. Net assets at the end of the year stood at $925 million.

Since 2017, they’ve raised just over $1.1 billion. Their goal, set in summer 2021, was to raise $1.6 billion over five years to pay for the presidential center and an endowment to sustain it for years to come.

Of the total 160,000 donors to the foundation, just over 57,000 gave in 2022 alone, according to the fund’s annual report, which was released today alongside its annual IRS Form 990 filing and financial report.

Fundraising in previous years was hindered both by the COVID-19 pandemic and legal challenges that slowed construction. After a long court battle, the official groundbreaking took place in September 2021, with a targeted opening in 2025.

The 2022 increase largely comes from tech donors, foundation spokeswoman Courtney Williams said. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky gave $100 million last year — not for the museum, but to fund the new Voyager scholarship, which gives “college students financial aid to help alleviate the burden of college debt, meaningful travel experiences to expand their horizons, and a network of mentors and leaders to support them throughout their careers,” according to a foundation release from last year.

Chesky gave an additional $25 million in unrestricted funds, Williams said. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos gave $100 million at the end of 2021 that was not reported until 2022.

The foundation’s new large, notable donors for 2022, according to Williams, are Bank of America, Comcast NBC Universal, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Lego System A/S. The foundation does not disclose specific donation amounts. It only lists donation tiers.

“We are grateful for the support of all of our donors this past year. We cannot support the leaders in our programs without the support of donors of all sizes,” Williams said in an email.

The foundation reported spending $59.7 million last year — of that, $24 million went to programming in service of the foundation’s mission “to inspire, empower and connect people to change their world.”

Among the foundation’s training programs for the next generation of civic leaders: the Obama Scholars program, which covers living and tuition costs for qualified students from University of Chicago, where Obama taught, and Columbia University in New York City, where Obama graduated from college. The two-year unpaid Obama Foundation Fellowship offers training, coaching and mentorship for groups of “civic innovators” from around the world. The Obama Foundation Leaders program — active in Africa, the Asia-Pacific and Europe — offers a six-month, nonresidential leadership development program that seeks to build “a community of changemakers from across the globe.” Obama’s father was Kenyan and the former president lived in the Asia-Pacific region as a youth.

The foundation also pays out grants to community organizations, including locals like Thrive Chicago and the Gary Comer Youth Center, as well as other national groups that support the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance.

As of the start of July, concrete work for the museum building’s elevator and stairwell reached the third floor, where the eventual Oval Office replica will be. Floor slabs for other buildings that will make up the campus — the forum and library buildings — were mostly in place last month. The city fully closed Cornell Drive along the eastern side earlier this summer to be permanently converted into green space, the latest in a series of roadway changes and transportation improvement projects in and around historic Jackson Park.

The foundation set workforce and contracting goals above what the city requires for certain major projects. The aim was for 35% of the construction workforce to come from targeted areas on the city’s South and West sides, and for 50% of subcontracting packages to be awarded to diverse vendors.

So far, the foundation says it’s exceeding the latter goal: 55% of construction contract dollars have been committed to diverse vendors, according to its annual report. Williams said $142 million has been spent with minority firms, $43 million with women-owned firms and $9.8 million with firms owned by veterans, LGBTQ individuals or those with disabilities.

But it’s falling slightly short on workforce: 32% of the total 73,000 construction workforce hours were performed by South and West siders, according to the report, though the majority of sitework has mostly been concrete, meaning other trades will have opportunities as construction progresses. The foundation has committed to spending $1.35 million to train 536 new pre-apprentices from those targeted neighborhoods, according to the annual report.

Through the end of last year, construction costs have totaled $222 million, up from $114.5 million the year before. In 2020, the foundation estimated the campus would cost $700 million to build and $40 million to operate in its first year.

Foundation salaries — already higher than that of most other presidential foundations — rose, too.

According to tax records, foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett earned more than $750,000 in 2022, up from $593,000 the year before. Foundation President David Simas earned just shy of $700,000, up from roughly $584,000 the previous year. Robbin Cohen, the Obama Presidential Center’s executive vice president, earned about $652,000 last year, up from about $535 in 2021. Tina Tchen, who joined the foundation in July 2022, earned over $190,000 for the latter half of the year as executive vice president and chief strategy and impact officer.