Illinois · Nonprofit
THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION
THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 397 organizations whose IRS filings report $609,514,847 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($88,352,494). 181 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 54 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 54 arts & culture nonprofits over $100M, FY2024
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Tisbest Philanthropyshared funders
- Loewenberg Charitable Foundationportfolio match
- Babs and Maury Young Foundationportfolio match
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
93% of THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (55% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 29 funders to 152 funders, grant income rose $29M → $99M.
36 of 397 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $73M from 20 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Silicon Valley Community Foundation); $3.8M from 2 payers (an institutional transfer, not a grant programme, largest Crimson Lion Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 397 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
42% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 23% · 2019 11% · 2020 11% · 2021 19% · 2022 11% · 2023 16% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
38% of THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 46% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION draws 86% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 37 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $256M arriving through sponsors registered in 18 statesis excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 397 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Tisbest Philanthropyshared fundersWA · backs 136 organizations that share your funders
- Loewenberg Charitable Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Babs and Maury Young Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Herbert & Roselle Mack Charitable Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Incshared fundersNY · backs 81 organizations that share your funders
- Crankstart Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 72 organizations that share your funders
- Circle of Service Foundationshared fundersIL · backs 128 organizations that share your funders
- Freedom Together Foundationshared fundersNY · backs 89 organizations that share your funders
- The Heising-Simons Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 85 organizations that share your funders
- Laura and John Arnold Foundationshared fundersTX · backs 62 organizations that share your funders
- Kpmg US Foundation Incshared fundersNJ · backs 85 organizations that share your funders
- Givinga Foundation Incshared fundersMA · backs 111 organizations that share your funders
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
56% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
78%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 30 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Charitable Lead Annuity Trust · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION?
- THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 397 organizations whose IRS filings report $609,514,847 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($88,352,494). 181 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 397 organizations giving $609,514,847 in grants to THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION, 181 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $88,352,494 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 397funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing