Obama Foundation revenues down in 2021 due to pandemic.

Washington 12th, August : Former US President Barack Obamas foundation set a target in the summer of last year of raising $1.6 billion between 2021 between 2021 and 2026 to finance construction of his presidential center and an endowment to support it for the next few years.

It was the second-lowest total of income the foundation has had since its inception as per the report.The lowest figure was in the year 2019, when revenues were $139 million.

Two years prior, the foundation had its highest income at $232 million.In the five years of existence the foundation has raked in an amount of 866 million in revenue.

The balance of the foundations fund of grants and pledges receivable was $242 million in 2021.This figure is which reflects the commitments of donors who have pledged to pay over a period of time.

At the close of 2021, the net assets stood at $680 million, an increase of 21% over last year.The foundations board also announced an endowment in 2021, securing it with $1 million "Its difficult to believe that its been just five years since Michelle and I founded the Obama Foundation, especially because many things have changed since when we first started it," Barack Obama wrote in the introduction to the annual report.

He said that those changes included the spread of pandemics, climate changes as well as threats to democracy, which are leaving "the possibility of the future of the collective effort in self-government hanging in the possibility of being hung in the." "Its quite a lot to think about enough to cause anyone to feel uneasy.The foundation was founded five years ago as an alternative to cynicism, and to show that we have the capacity in us to confront the current trends in the world.

We want and to ensure that our institutions are able to meet the current challenges, and to provide more people with an opportunity to live their lives better.The work we do today is more crucial than ever before," the former President wrote.

The fundraising in the past few years has been hampered due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the lengthy delays in the approvals needed for the presidential centres development.After a lengthy legal dispute, the official ceremony for the three-building campus, which covers 19 acres in Jackson Park, took place in September.

After the ceremony the foundation made a number of commitments from big-name donors, who devoted areas around the campus as well as in the main building to notable historical individuals.One of them was Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who said he will donate $100 million in the memory of former Congressman John Lewis, the civil rights pioneer.

The foundation has also added 130 donors to its contributor page .They have either made cash contributions or made commitments in 2021.This includes contributions of more than $1 million from companies like Allstate, BMO Financial Group, CME Group Foundation, Google.org and the Goldman Sachs Foundation and Philanthropy Fund, lululemon, McDonalds, Motorola Solutions, Walgreens and UL.The new members of the $1 million plus club include DoorDash co-founder Tony Xu and his wife Patti Bao, former Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, former Wheels CEO James Frank and his wife Karen Real developers Elzie Higginbottom, Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts and her wife Brooke and the filmmaker Tyler Perry.The foundation has stated that it will cost $700 million for the construction of the OPCs campus and buildings and another $90 million to gather artifacts, design exhibits , and prepare for its opening.

Then, finally, $40 million to run it for one year after construction has finished.Construction costs up to the years end of 2021, as per the annual report were just less than of $115 million.IRS forms show that the construction company, Lakeside Alliance, was paid more than $20.5 million in 2021.Tod Williams Billie-Tsien Architects has so had received $1.5 million, while the design firm for exhibits Ralph Appelbaum Associates had been paid $1.2 million.Since the groundbreaking foundation was laid, the foundation has rolled out some of the details of the university and exhibitions.

They include a new water garden that was named in the honor of Michelle Obamas former mother, Ann Dunham, and an exhibit of models of White House rooms such as the East Room, the State Dining Room as well as the South Lawn, named after Michelle Obamas mother, Marian Robinson.