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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.

$210M
Revenue FY2024
397
Funders on record
$610M
Grants received
$1.1B
Net assets
181/397 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 70%

Against its field

THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 54 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin56% · top quartile
Months of reserve15.3mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−1% · bottom quartile

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.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($232M) Expenses 100 ($21M) Net assets 100 ($224M)2018 Revenue 71 ($165M) Expenses 216 ($46M) Net assets 153 ($343M)2019 Revenue 61 ($141M) Expenses 258 ($55M) Net assets 192 ($430M)2020 Revenue 74 ($171M) Expenses 191 ($41M) Net assets 250 ($561M)2021 Revenue 69 ($160M) Expenses 191 ($41M) Net assets 303 ($680M)2022 Revenue 133 ($309M) Expenses 281 ($60M) Net assets 413 ($925M)2023 Revenue 61 ($141M) Expenses 411 ($87M) Net assets 429 ($962M)2024 Revenue 90 ($210M) Expenses 430 ($91M) Net assets 478 ($1.1B)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (90)Expenses (430)Net assets (478)Peer revenue range

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

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).

This organization
Typical peer · 55 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$211M
17
$119M
18
$87M
19
$131M
20
$119M
21
$250M
22
$53M
23
$118M
24
15
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

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.

14%
largest funder
30%
top three
~20
effective funders

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.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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.

AK
ME
VT
WA
ID
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
IA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
UT
CO
MO
KY
VA
MD
DE
AZ
TN
NC
SC
DC
OK
GA
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Illinois out of state home

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.

03Its place in the field

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.

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

04Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

56% of spending goes to programs.

Program 56%Management 18%Fundraising 26%

Governance

16
board members
94%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

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

AK
NH
ND
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
PA
NJ
RI
CA
KY
WV
VA
MD
NM
KS
AR
TN
NC
SC
HI
OK
MS
AL
GA
FL

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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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