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Formation | 2014 |
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Founders | |
Type | Non-operating private foundation |
EIN 46-4950751 [1] | |
Legal status | 501(c)(3) organization |
Headquarters | Hyde Park, Chicago, Illinois |
Valerie Jarrett | |
Revenue | $143,158,266 (2019) [2] |
Endowment | $429,545,259 (2019) [2] |
Website | www |
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Pre-presidency 44th President of the United States First term Second term Post-presidency Publications Personal ![]() | ||
The Barack Obama Foundation is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization founded in 2014. It oversees the creation of the Barack Obama Presidential Center, runs the My Brother's Keeper Alliance (a program Barack Obama began while he was president), and operates a scholarship program through the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy.
The foundation held its inaugural summit on October 31, 2017, in Chicago. According to Barack Obama, he intends for his foundation to be central to many of his post-presidential activities, which he sees as having the potential to be more consequential than his time in the White House. [3]
The foundation's first president was Adewale Adeyemo, an economist and former Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economic Affairs who joined in August 2019. [4] In 2020, President-elect Joe Biden selected Adeyemo to serve as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, and he was replaced by Valerie Jarrett. [5] Jarrett has been CEO of the Foundation since 2021 [6]
The Foundation raised $232.6 million in 2017 and $164.8 million in 2018. [7] [8] In 2022, all contributions and in-kind gifts totaled $311 million. It has net assets of $925 million and has raised $1.1 billion since 2017. [9]
The foundation's major project as of March 2018 [update] is to oversee the creation of the planned presidential library of former president Obama. In May 2015, the foundation, along with Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, announced the development of the center and its location in the Jackson Park neighborhood of Chicago's South Side. [10] The planning process met with criticism from some local leaders who questioned the benefit for the surrounding area and did not feel the community was sufficiently involved. [11] [12] On February 26, 2019, Chicago residents voted to require a community benefits agreement in order to make the Center official, something to which the Obama Foundation has objected. [13] [14]
Updated plans were released in 2019, with some changes based on feedback. The complex includes four buildings, with a museum, public space, public library branch, and athletic center. It was designed by the architectural firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien. [15]
Construction on the 19.3 acre campus is expected to top out in April 2024, and be completed in October 2025. [16]
In February 2018 the foundation announced it had begun a scholarship program at the University of Chicago. The scholarships are awarded to 25 American and international master's students in the Harris School of Public Policy in an effort to cultivate leadership through the Presidential Center. It covers the students' tuition and living expenses while they work with the foundation and take classes. [17] [18] It also began sponsoring fellowships called Obama Foundation Scholars at Columbia University, Obama's alma mater. In its first year, 2018, the non-degree-granting program paid the expenses and provided a stipend for 12 international students. [19]
In May 2022, The Obama Foundation announced a $100 million gift from Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky. The gift was to launch a new scholarship program for students pursuing careers in public services. The Voyager Scholarship, also known as the "Obama-Chesky Scholarship for Public Service" aimed to support students in their junior and senior years of college with up to $50,000 in financial aid, a $10,000 stipend and free Airbnb housing to pursue a summer work-travel experience between their junior and senior years of college; a $2,000 travel credit every year for 10 years following graduation; an annual summit; and a network of mentors. [20] On September 12, 2022, the inaugural cohort of 100 "Voyagers" was announced. The inaugural cohort represented 36 US states and territories and 70 US colleges and universities. [21] Barack Obama and Brian Chesky surprised the 2022 cohort via a Zoom video call to share insights into their public service journeys and to congratulate the students on their selection. [22]
The My Brother's Keeper Alliance (MBK Alliance) is a program inspired by President Obama's My Brother's Keeper Challenge that he started through the White House in 2014. Its purpose is to address challenges and opportunity gaps that boys and young men of color face, providing support through mentoring, education, job training, and other activities. [23] [24] In 2017, MBK Alliance was moved into the Obama Foundation. [25] MBK Alliance operates the Model Communities initiative, which recognizes and provides funding and coaching for communities implementing evidence-based practices to meet six milestones: reduction of violence, increasing readiness to learn, reading at grade level by third grade, graduating high school, graduating college or vocational school, and finding employment. MBK Alliance has recognized four Model Communities as of May 2024: Newark, New Jersey; Omaha, Nebraska; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Yonkers, New York. [26] [27]
In 2018, Michelle Obama created the Girls Opportunity Alliance, a program within the Obama Foundation focused on adolescent girls' education. [28] [29] [30]
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be the second largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $69 billion in assets as of 2020. The primary stated goals of the foundation are to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty across the world, and to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology in the U.S. Key individuals of the foundation include Warren Buffett, chief executive officer Mark Suzman, and Michael Larson.
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Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. As a member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African-American president in U.S. history. Obama previously served as a U.S. senator representing Illinois from 2005 to 2008, and as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004.
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Barack Obama, President of the United States from 2009 to 2017, served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004. A member of the Democratic Party, he made his presidential run in 2008. He was elected President in 2008 and re-elected in 2012.
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Valerie June Jarrett is an American businesswoman and former government official serving as the chief executive officer of the Obama Foundation since 2021. She was the longest-serving senior advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama. She was assistant to the president for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs, overseeing the office of the same name, and chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls. Before that, she was the chief executive officer of The Habitat Company and served as a co-chair of the Obama–Biden Transition Project.
The family of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, is a prominent American family active in law, education, activism and politics. Obama's immediate family circle was the first family of the United States from 2009 to 2017, and are the first such family of African-American descent. His immediate family includes his wife Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha.
Barack Obama, then junior United States senator from Illinois, announced his candidacy for president of the United States on February 10, 2007, in Springfield, Illinois. After winning a majority of delegates in the Democratic primaries of 2008, on August 23, leading up to the convention, the campaign announced that Senator Joe Biden of Delaware would be the vice presidential nominee. At the 2008 Democratic National Convention on August 27, Barack Obama was formally selected as the Democratic Party nominee for president of the United States in 2008. He was the first African American in history to be nominated on a major party ticket. On November 4, 2008, Obama defeated the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, making him the president-elect and the first African American elected president.
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Media related to Obama Foundation at Wikimedia Commons