Skip to footer

Obamas gave 22 percent of their 2011 income to charity

The biggest Obama charitable gift went to the Fisher House Foundation, a group that provides free or low-cost housing to military personnel or their families while they receive medical treatment.

|
Yuri Gripas/Reuters
First lady Michelle Obama participates in a pre-Easter celebration with military families and children at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., April 4. The Obamas' largest 2011 charitable gift, $117,130, was to a group that provides housing to military personnel and their families while they receive medical treatment.

President Obama and his wife, Michelle, gave nearly 22 percent of their income to charity in 2011, according to tax returns made public today.

The couple reported $789,674 in income and gave $172,130 to charity.

The largest gift was a $117,130 contribution to the Fisher House Foundation, a group that provides free or low-cost housing to military personnel and their families while they are receiving treatment at military medical centers. Mr. Obama has been giving the charity the after-tax proceeds of the sale of a children’s book he wrote.

RELATED: Kate Middleton lends a hand to children, the arts with her charity projects

The Obamas’ giving represents a bigger share of their income than that of the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Mitt Romney, and his wife, Ann, according to an estimate of their 2011 taxes, released in January. They reported they had given more than 16 percent of their income to charity in 2010 and 2011.

According to the Romney campaign, the couple reported $21.6-million in income in 2010 and gave $3-million to charity. In 2011, they reported $20.9-million in income and made $4-million in charitable gifts.

Both of the men who want to win the 2012 presidential race have given considerably more than the share of income reported by other people at their income level.

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, in tax documents released today, reported that they had given about 1.5 percent of their income to charity in 2011. The Bidens, who reported income of $379,035, contributed $5,540 to charity in 2011, according to the White House.

• This article originally appeared at The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

• Sign up to receive a weekly selection of practical and inspiring Change Agent articles by clicking here.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Obamas gave 22 percent of their 2011 income to charity
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/Change-Agent/2012/0416/Obamas-gave-22-percent-of-their-2011-income-to-charity
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe