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Plinth

· Public charity

The Barack Obama Foundation

To inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world and to honor the legacy of president.

$11M
Granted FY2024still arriving
6
Grants FY2024still arriving
5
States reached
$3.5M
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2018–2024.

Philanthropy$8.5MYouth Development$5.8MRecreation & Sports$5.5MEducation$3.7MHuman Services$2.5MArts & Culture$2.3MPublic Benefit$2.1MCommunity Improvement$1.7MOther$0
02FY2024 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 6 grants below total $7,140,864 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $11,386,511 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $4,245,647 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $50k–250k2 grants · $187k
  • $250k+4 grants · $7.0M
$1,000,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$1.1B
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
GOFUNDMEORG$3,454,197
NATIONAL ARCHIVES TRUST FUND$1,500,000
CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT$1,000,000
JOHN JAY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC$1,000,000
YMCA OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO$100,000
URBAN ALLIANCE FOUNDATION INC$86,667
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY18–24, $4.6M) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 57% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%CHANGE HAPPENS: $100k → 16%CHANGE HAPPENS: $100k → 16%TIDES CENTER: $1.0M → 10%JOHN JAY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC: $1.0M → 17%CHANGE HAPPENS: $50k → 16%TIDES CENTER: $1.0M → 10%JOHN JAY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC: $250k → 17%METROPOLITAN FAMILY SERVICES: $50k → 14%YMCA OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $100k → 14%YMCA OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $58k → 14%THRIVE CHICAGO: $500k → 14%THRIVE CHICAGO: $392k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

Which US states your grants reach

IL
MI
NY
MA
NJ
CA
NE
MD
NM
DC
OK
GA
TX
FL

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 9% of The Barack Obama Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.

The Barack Obama Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

77%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$25M · 27 repeat orgs$7.3M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +74% since the first grant, against +19% for the ones you funded once.

27 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2024, 21 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

27
11

Total granted

$25M
$7.3M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+74%
+19%

Still filing today

85%
82%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EducationHuman ServicesYouth DevelopmentEmploymentCommunity ImprovementPhilanthropyOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • JJ
    JOHN JAY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC
    2× · 2023–2024 · $1.3M · revenue +3%
  • AA
    AFRICAN AMERICAN EMPOWERMENT NETWORK IN
    4× · 2018–2023 · $951k · revenue +55% · 33% of their budget
  • YG
    Youth Guidance
    3× · 2018–2020 · $700k · revenue +26%

Funded once

  • CP
    CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT
    one grant, 2021 · $3.5M
  • ER
    Educational Results Partnership
    one grant, 2020 · $1.1M · revenue -72%
  • YP
    YONKERS PUBLIC SCHOOLS
    one grant, 2023 · $800k

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Chicago Youth Centers

To provide high-quality early learning and out-of-school time enrichment in under-resourced neighborhoods to holistically support children of all ages, their families, and their communities.

Youth Development
2
A Better Chicago

A better chicago is changing how chicago fights poverty by investing in bold ideas that create opportunity for our youth.

Human Services
3
Midtown-Metro Achievement Centers

Midtown-Metro Achievement Centers, through its Midtown Center for boys and Metro Achievement Center for girls, helps close the achievement gap for Chicago's urban youth ages eight through eighteen.

Education
4
Community Education Commission

CEC works with diverse stakeholders across Detroit to develop critical resources and system-level solutions that address common challenges faced by Detroit families in accessing quality education.

Education
5
Chicago United for Equity

Connecting and amplifying the power of individuals to build a just, equitable, and inclusive city.

Civil Rights
6
The Center for Youth Services Inc

We partner with youth to realize their full potential, by creating opportunities, removing barriers, and promoting racial justice.

Human Services
7
Chicago Votes

Chicago Votes is a non-partisan, non-profit organization building a more inclusive democracy by putting power in the hands of young Chicagoans. We're engaging and developing a new generation of leaders by opening the doors of government,…

Civil Rights
8
Cityworks Dc

Our mission is to dramatically improve the early career outcomes of dc youth and young adults of color by creating innovative programs and by mobilizing employers, educators, and city leaders to create a local, diverse talent pipeline. our…

Education
9
New Leaders Council

New Leaders Council's mission is to develop, connect and uplift cross-sector leaders who will transform our country through social and political change.

Public Benefit
10
The Partnership for College Completion

The Partnership for College Completion (PCC) champions policies, practices, and systems that increase college completion and eliminate degree completion disparities for low-income, first generation, and students of color in Illinois…

Education
11
Community Youth Center of San Francisco

Our mission is to encourage a diverse population of high-need young people to explore their full potential through academic, career, family, and community life. Every year, CYC impacts over 8,000 San Francisco youth and their families,…

—
12
Community Youth Services

Empowers youth at-risk and their families to meet goals for safety, stability, belonging and success by providing a continuum of individualized services and advocacy.

Human Services

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Gary Comer Youth Center Inc and the most unlike its peers is Champs Male Mentoring Program - Chirise. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyCommunity FoundationsCommunity College Foundatio…School District FoundationsDance Arts OrganizationsPolicy Research and AdvocacyYmca Youth DevelopmentImmigrant Worker SupportIndependent K-12 SchoolsChild Abuse Advocacy Servic…Health Access Advocacy and …Youth Development Services
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 29 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%3%<5yr14%6%5–10yr19%27%10–20yr16%38%20–35yr13%18%35–55yr16%9%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%3%<5yr14%5%5–10yr19%51%10–20yr16%32%20–35yr13%8%35–55yr16%1%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 3% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 3% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
3%1/40
the rest of the field
13%
240,395/1,819,525

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

05the grantee network

36 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 36 of the 41 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

4
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
12
Early backer (in before they grew)
35/36
Grantees still filing
27/36
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT — $3,500,000 · OtherCHICAGO PARK DISTRICTNATIONAL ARCHIVES TRUST FUND — $2,250,000 · OtherNATIONAL ARCHIVES TRUST FUNDTHE NATIONAL ARCHIVES ASSEMBLY — $2,083,000 · OtherTHE NATIONAL ARCHIVES ASSEMBLYCHICAGO PARK DISTRICT — $2,000,000 · OtherCHICAGO PARK DISTRICTEMERALD SOUTH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COLLOBORATIVE — $1,250,000 · OtherEMERALD SOUTH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COLLOBORATI…YONKERS PUBLIC SCHOOLS — $800,000 · OtherYONKERS PUBLIC SCHOOLSCENTERS FOR FAMILY DEVELOPMENT INC — $684,000 · OtherNepperhan Community Center Inc — $650,000 · Other+9 more — $1,209,500 · Other+9 moreGOFUNDMEORG — $7,685,546 · PhilanthropyGOFUNDMEORGLIBERTY HILL FOUNDATION — $612,500 · PhilanthropyLIBERTY HILL FOUNDATIONPUERTO RICO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC — $584,000 · PhilanthropyPUERTO RICO COMMUNITY FOUNDA…TIDES CENTER — $2,000,000 · Human ServicesTIDES CENTERJOHN JAY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC — $1,250,000 · Human ServicesJOHN JAY COLLE…THRIVE CHICAGO NFP — $891,949 · Human ServicesTHRIVE CHICAGO…Civic Heart Community Services — $250,000 · Human ServicesCivic Heart Co…The YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago — $157,662 · Human Services+1 more — $50,000 · Human ServicesEducational Results Partnership — $1,066,200 · EducationEducational R…AFRICAN AMERICAN EMPOWERMENT NETWORK IN — $951,000 · EducationAFRICAN AMERI…ImpactTulsa Inc — $800,000 · EducationImpactTulsa I…Youth Guidance — $700,000 · EducationYouth Guidanc…NACA-INSPIRED SCHOOLS NETWORK — $634,000 · EducationNACA-INSPIRED…+3 more — $169,000 · EducationTHE URBAN ALLIANCE FOUNDATION INC — $1,483,334 · EmploymentJUMA VENTURES INC — $100,000 · EmploymentYouthBuild Newark Inc — $800,000 · Youth DevelopmentNew Life Centers of Chicagoland — $151,000 · Youth DevelopmentRYSE INC — $134,000 · Youth Development+1 more — $15,000 · Youth DevelopmentSIERRA HEALTH FOUNDATION CENTER FOR HEALTH PROGRAM MANAGEMENT — $575,000 · Health
Other$14,426,500Philanthropy$8,882,046Human Services$4,599,611Education$4,320,200Employment$1,583,334Youth Development$1,100,000Health$575,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetGOFUNDMEORG — $7,685,546 over 5y, 47% of budgetTIDES CENTER — $2,000,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetTHE URBAN ALLIANCE FOUNDATION INC — $1,483,334 over 4y, 4.2% of budgetEMERALD SOUTH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COLLOBORATIVE — $1,250,000 over 2y, 20% of budgetJOHN JAY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC — $1,250,000 over 2y, 15% of budgetEducational Results Partnership — $1,066,200 over 1y, 24% of budgetAFRICAN AMERICAN EMPOWERMENT NETWORK IN — $951,000 over 4y, 33% of budgetTHRIVE CHICAGO NFP — $891,949 over 2y, 31% of budgetYouthBuild Newark Inc — $800,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetImpactTulsa Inc — $800,000 over 1y, 73% of budgetYouth Guidance — $700,000 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetCENTERS FOR FAMILY DEVELOPMENT INC — $684,000 over 4y, 2.8% of budgetNepperhan Community Center Inc — $650,000 over 3y, 2.6% of budgetNACA-INSPIRED SCHOOLS NETWORK — $634,000 over 4y, 1.4% of budgetLIBERTY HILL FOUNDATION — $612,500 over 6y, 2.9% of budgetPUERTO RICO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC — $584,000 over 4y, 4.4% of budgetSIERRA HEALTH FOUNDATION CENTER FOR HEALTH PROGRAM MANAGEMENT — $575,000 over 3y, 3.6% of budgetCivic Heart Community Services — $250,000 over 3y, 2.1% of budgetTHE MASS MENTORING PARTNERSHIP INC — $250,000 over 3y, 4.1% of budgetURBAN STRATEGIES COUNCIL — $200,000 over 2y, 6.5% of budgetThe YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago — $157,662 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetNew Life Centers of Chicagoland — $151,000 over 3y, 1.9% of budgetTHE CHICAGO COMMUNITY LOAN FUND — $150,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetYouth Leadership Institute — $134,000 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetRYSE INC — $134,000 over 3y, 1.9% of budgetLAWNDALE CHRISTIAN LEGAL CENTER — $134,000 over 3y, 2.2% of budgetORLANDO COMMUNITY & YOUTH TRUST INC — $134,000 over 3y, 5.2% of budgetBUILD INC — $134,000 over 3y, 1.3% of budgetSOUTH SHORE DRILL TEAM & PERFORMING ARTS ENSEMBLE — $120,000 over 3y, 5.0% of budgetJUMA VENTURES INC — $100,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetTHE MENTORING CENTER — $50,000 over 1y, 3.9% of budgetMetropolitan Family Services — $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE FUND FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS INC — $37,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCHAMPS MALE MENTORING PROGRAM - CHIRISE — $25,000 over 1y, 2.5% of budgetGARY COMER YOUTH CENTER INC — $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetCHILDREN FIRST FUND THE CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Rockefeller Philanthr…The Chicago Community…Silicon Valley Commun…Tides CenterJohn D and Catherine …Field Foundation of I…Amalgamated Charitabl…Circle of Service Fou…United Way of Metropo…The San Francisco Fou…The California Wellne…The California Endowm…
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors IncNY20.2× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc · The Chicago Community Trust · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Tides Center · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Field Foundation of Illinois · Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · Circle of Service Foundation · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · The San Francisco Foundation · The California Wellness Foundation · The California Endowment

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization The Barack Obama Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%5%19%42%75%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 63%
  • The Mass Mentoring Partnership Inc — 63% of income from government
  • YouthBuild Newark Inc — 27% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
13report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
1rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY20–25

Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 41 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines