In the final fundraising report before President Barack Obama leaves office and begins to personally raise money for his library on the South Side, his foundation showed an uptick in donors.
The report, which was released Friday and lists donors and a range of their donations for the fourth quarter of 2016, but not an overall total, showed that the foundation attracted 24 contributors who are new or who have resumed contributing. Three of those were listed in the highest range, from $500,001 to $1 million, the category that the foundation will be counting on if the foundation is to meet the ambitious fundraising targets.
While Obama’s planners decline to provide a cost estimate, the George W. Bush library and endowment ended up raising more than $500 million to build and endow his library in Dallas.
The three donors listed in the highest category were Stephen Cloobeck, a travel executive and longtime Democratic donor; Mel Heifetz, a real estate investor and Obama supporter; and the family foundation of Glenn Hutchins, a co-founder of the private equity firm Silver Lake Partners.
In the next range — for $250,001 to $500,000 — two new donors to the foundation were listed. One was the family foundation of George Logothetis, a Greek shipping magnate; and Alison and Mark Pincus, a technology entrepreneur who is behind the mobile game maker Zynga.
In the tier for those who gave $100,001 to $250,000, two new donors were listed. Jill and Avie Glazer, from the family that owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; and Marjorie and Louis B. Susman, the ambassador to Britain during Obama’s first term.
Seventeen of the new donors reported in the Obama Foundation’s report were in the lowest range, for those who gave $200 to $100,000. Among those are two members of the Obama Foundation’s board, Martin Nesbitt, its chairman, whose donation was made along with his wife, Dr. Anita Blanchard; and J. Kevin Poorman, who made his donation through his family foundation.
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Fundraising activity is expected to ramp up significantly once Obama leaves office. Seeking to avoid controversies that hung over the Clinton Foundation, Obama agreed not to accept contributions from for-profit entities, federal lobbyists or foreign nationals or agents while he remains in office.
Twitter @kathy_bergen