WASHINGTON -- The three nonprofit foundations started by Bill Clinton have raised a combined $1.65 billion in the past 11 years, according to tax records.
Clintons
From the original foundation's creation in 2001 shortly after Clinton left the White House, the Clinton family's global charities have grown to address a range of issues including obesity, energy efficiency and climate change and Hillary Clinton's new "Too Small to Fail" program aimed at the health of children under age 6.
The most well-known of the foundations was renamed the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation in 2013 after Hillary Clinton resigned as secretary of state. It was previously the William J. Clinton Foundation.
The New York-based foundation also has a presence in Little Rock, the site of Clinton's presidential library.
The foundation's 2013 tax form 990 was filed earlier this month. Eleven years of past financial records are available on the foundation website at https://www.clintonfoundation.org/about/annual-financial-reports.
In 2013, the foundation received $144.4 million in donations and grants, up from $51.5 million in 2012.
The Clinton Foundation's donation increase stemmed from an endowment drive, Chief Financial Officer Andrew Kessel said in a letter accompanying the documents.
The foundation has already raised more than $200 million toward its $250 million endowment goal.
"To further our long-term impact, the Foundation began raising funds in 2013 for an endowment that will help us responsibly support established programs and expand our work," Kessel said. "We are incredibly proud of our work helping people live their best life stories. With an even stronger financial situation in 2013, the Clinton Foundation is positioned to broaden its impact across the globe."
Still, the endowment would be far below the amount set aside by other well-known American foundations. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has a $42.3 billion endowment. The Ford Foundation has a more than $10 billion endowment.
University of Southern California Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy Director James Ferris said most of the larger endowed foundations come from a person donating his personal wealth.
The Clintons are fundraising to build the endowment, "which is sort of like [how] a university would," he said. "It's not so much that it is Clinton's personal wealth. It's basically using their name in order to do fundraising."
No one factor determines how large an endowment should be, he said. Setting aside funds gives the foundation a chance to look further into the future, he said.
"It creates stability and permanence," Ferris said. "Rather than every time you want to do a program, you have to raise money for that program."
The foundation has landed on Forbes' list of largest U.S. charities in the past but did not land on many publications' lists of top charities in 2013.
The jump in contributions also occurred because the foundation was consolidated with the Clinton Global Initiative in 2013, Kessel said in the letter.
The Clinton Global Initiative brings together world leaders, chief executive officers and philanthropists to discuss solutions to major world challenges.
President Barack Obama's administration asked that the initiative be separately incorporated while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state. It was separately incorporated during fiscal years 2010, 2011 and 2012 and filed separate 990s with the IRS during that time.
The Clinton Health Access Initiative, formerly the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, was separately incorporated in 2010. The initiative, which is focused on improve health systems in foreign countries, remains a stand-alone entity. In 2013, it brought in $117 million in grants and donations, up from $88.4 million in 2012, according to its form 990.
Nonprofits, or 501(c)(3) organizations, are not required to disclose their donors, which can make it difficult to determine who gives and when.
The Clinton Foundation's 2013 form 990 lists nine donations worth between $3 million and $15 million each, though names and other identifying information are blacked out.
The Clinton Foundation has voluntarily listed all of its donors online, grouped in broad categories by how much they have contributed since the foundation was launched. The six groups or people that have donated more than $25 million are grouped together, the 11 groups or people that have donated between $10,000,001 and $25 million are grouped together, etc.
That list notes whether a donor gave in 2013 but does not say how much was donated. For example, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated more than $25 million since the Clinton Foundation started more than a decade ago.
The website states it donated in 2013, but it is not clear how much it gave that year.
A foundation spokesman wouldn't provide more detailed information than what is on the website.
Metro on 11/25/2014