Illinois · Nonprofit
THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION
THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 407 organizations whose IRS filings report $611,933,596 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($88,352,494). 184 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $210M
- Funders on record
- 407
- Grants received
- $612M
- Net assets
- $1.1B
What The Barack Obama Foundation does
Mission
To inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world and to honor the legacy of president.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Obama foundation programming:in service of the foundation's mission to inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world, the foundation continued to work with young leaders in a variety of local, national, and global programs.scholars: our scholars program supports leaders around the world who are ready to take their work to the next level via a one-year residential program that brings together academic, skills-based, and hands-on learning. For the 2023-2024 school year, the scholars program included 18 scholars at the university of chicago and 12 scholars at columbia university.leaders: leaders africa, asia-pacific, europe, and usa are each leadership programs aimed at building and empowering regional networks of changemakers. The regional cohorts participate in values-based leadership training. The leaders africa program began in 2018, the leaders asia-pacific program launched in 2019, the leaders europe program launched in 2020, and the leaders usa program launched in 2022. The africa, asia-pacific, and europe cohorts each contain 35 members, and the usa cohort contains 100.the voyager scholarship: the obama-chesky scholarship for public service, launched in 2022 with…
$27,508,813 spentof which $8,886,511 as grants54% of program spendingObama presidental center:in 2024 the obama foundation construction activities included completing the museum building superstructure and the commencement and installation of approximately 45% of the exterior cladding (stone and glass/curtainwall) across the museum, forum, and library buildings. Construction began on the athletic center ("home court") and by year's end the overall construction progress on the athletic center was approximately 40% complete. Interior fit-out work began on all four campus buildings. Activities also included advancing the museum component through accelerated exhibition fabrication, media development, and artifact mountmaking; ongoing artifact collecting, preservation, and management; and expanded arts commissioning activity and arts program planning. Operational planning began, focused on facilities, security, visitor experience, and earned income. In anticipation of the opening of the obama presidential center, representatives of the foundation also attended various stakeholder and community events throughout the city in an effort to build strong relationships and spread awareness about the opc.
$23,617,548 spentof which $2,500,000 as grants46% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $51,126,361.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $694M to $945M (+36%).
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 (56% 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
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Valerie Jarrett
Director/CEO
Board chair
Martin H Nesbitt
Director/chairperson
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 29 funders to 152 funders, grant income rose $29M → $99M.
38 of 407 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 21 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 407 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; 45% 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 38 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $257M arriving through sponsors registered in 19 states is 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.
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
Organizations like THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the 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. Screen this nonprofit · 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 407 organizations whose IRS filings report $611,933,596 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($88,352,494). 184 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 407 organizations giving $611,933,596 in grants to THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION, 184 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 407 funders 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 October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing