Clinton Charitable Contributions Went To Clinton Foundation

The New York Times notes that most of the Clinton's charitable contributions went to their own foundation, which has yet to give away much of the money:

During that time, the Clintons paid $33.8 million in federal taxes and claimed deductions for $10.2 million in charitable contributions. The contributions went to a family foundation run by the Clintons that has given away only about half of the money they put into it, and most of that was last year, after Mrs. Clinton declared her candidacy.

Comments

[TruthBeTold4us]

When people hear the Clintons gave $10 million to charity, they assume it's some worthwhile group such as the Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, etc.

How like the Clintons to set up a foundation that they run as a "charity." Kind of like the Rockefeller and Ford "foundations," don't you think?

I also found this aspect of Bill's speech "income" very interesting:

The New York investment giant Goldman Sachs paid Bill Clinton $650,000 for four speeches in recent years. Its employees and its political action committee have donated more than $440,000 to the senator's presidential campaign, putting the firm second on the list of her most generous political patrons, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The banking firm Citigroup, whose employees and PAC rank third among Hillary Clinton's campaign donors, with more than $388,000, paid her husband $250,000 for a speech in France in 2004. In 2006, the firm committed $5.5 million to the Clinton Global Initiative, which encourages entrepreneurship and financial education among the poor.

Tangled webs, indeed.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

if you look up the information available online you will see that the foundation does give its money to charities like you describe. Why do you make assumptions without looking up the data? It's right there available for you to review.

Thhe foundation has NO paid employees. the Clintons get NO money from it. The admin expenses are very small.

The foundation gives money to charities such as schools, churches, hospitals, the arts, medical research, volunteer fire dept,etc

Have a look, you might have a different opinion afterward

[anthonylee]

You are absolutely correct, their foundation does give to worthwhile charities, the question is when did they start giving? . . . . Oh right . . . . when it benefited Hillary's Presidential run! . . . . .not a dime was given to any organization until a couple of years ago!?!?

If you look up the information available online you'd see that it's all "smoke & mirrors"! . . . a shell game of "hide the cash from Uncle Sam" You are not that naive to believe that although the books state that the Foundation has NO paid employees & the Clintons get NO money from it (who administers, who keeps the books?). . . . . doesn't mean they don't benefit from the "value" of the Foundation monetarily. You obviously don't understand what a "Trust" is and the tax incentives associated with them!

Get to your Estate Planner in a ambulance!!!!! you're about to give all of your hard earned money to Uncle Sam!

"Have a look, you might have a different opinion afterward"

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

I'm still unclear about why anyone thinks it is important when the foundation gives the money to individual charities. It will be given away eventually. The Clintons get NO money back from the foundation at all. The foundation earns interest on the money that isn't given away YET and that interest is available to give away as well. THis foundation has NO paid employees.

You really should read the tax filings for this foundation before going NUTS with the comments.

You can see exactly what charities are given to. You can see the admin expenses (very small) and you can see that no one gets paid.

[BluMoonRising]

Reminds me of ole Mama Bush only giving after Katrina if they used money to purchase software from her sons company only. She's got those EarMarks down!

[anthonylee]

Earn enough money to owe/pay the IRS six-figures . . . . . . perspective is everything! You obviously don't get it.

Please stop with: "This foundation has NO paid employees" what you mean to say is the foundation has no "Pay Roll". The Foundation does send out a boat load of 1099's to consultants, administrators, accountants, cleaning services, caterers, security, facility managers, landscape services etc. etc. etc. . . . how much you want to bet both Bill & Hillary are paid administrators?

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

again, have you looked at the documents? There was no year where the foundation had expenses of more than $4,000. Some early years it was less than $2,000.
Bill, Hillary and Chelsea are all listed in the tax filings and are all listed as receiving no compensation.
Why do you continue to speculate when you could just look at the tax documents?

Is it just more fun for you to make up accusations?

[SanityNowPlease]

anthony, hey, I am an obamaphile so I don't have a clinton to defend, but you really should go look at the Clinton Family Foundation returns. They are not nefarious at all. The fact is that they don't need to get paid from the foundation as they are already swimming in cash. the foundation affords them the reduction in taxable income and thus a shelter while allowing them to maintain control over those assets. Now I am not saying there is nothing stinky about the clintons, but this really does look clean.

Hell, I think it just pisses a whole lot of us off, who aren't part of the wealthiest 14,500 people in america, how convenient it is that you can easily avoid tax on a huge portion of your income by "giving" it to a private foundation run by yourself, be required to only give away 5% of it to maintain that tax free status, and continue to maintain control over the money. It really is the way our tax system is set up. If you have huge sums of money, which the clintons surely have now, you would be stupid not to structure your money like this. If you didn't, you would end up, well, "poor" again. The clintons, or any other of the ultra powerful, don't strike me as people who like to give up control so they don't.

[LuoPrincess]

I would like to thank posters on HUffpost who actually have provided vital information: there are two separate foundations. The Clinton family foundation was found in 2001 and Hilary is treasury and secretary, Bill is president and HIllary is Director. HIllary also failed to list it on her Sentae disclosure reports 5 (FIVE) times!
Check this link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/26/AR2007022601542.html

I suggest people read this first before they make comments. It is an eye opener and also it was written before the political silly season however it does point out that this foundation is NOT related to CHAI (that rakes in billions and gives in charity for AIDS in Africa), and it has given money to pet projects like supporting their alma mater universities etc. I agree with those who say that this is one way for the rich to avoid paying taxes and have future control over money given in donation or charity.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

Can you explain what you think the problem is with having future control? Have you looked at the documents to see the charities they have given to? there is nothing out of the ordinary.

They would get the same tax benefit if they wrote checks directly to charities instead of giving it to the foundation to control.

The only difference is that it allows then to take time to decide which charities to give it to instead of having to make that decision at one time.

[LuoPrincess]

I did not say I have a problem with future control, I was pointing out that I agree that that's the purpose of such family foundations. I was not judging or qualifying whether it is right or wrong. But since you bring it up, I think that as long as people do not use their Charity foundation to buy favors, (political favors in the CLintons' case) it is alright. I do not know enough about the Clinton Family foundation to judge whether they used it as favors or not, except what I read from the Washington Post article which was written more than a year ago.

[DMHendrix]

Wait...you mean you can donate that much money to charity..t­hat is a family run "trust" and still claim the deduction even though you've only distributed half of it? I'd like to see how that trust or charity is set up and what type of account its in...who gets the interest on all that money that is still sitting there? Seems a little strange that the whole "charity" thing had that pile of cash dumped in to AFTER Hillary announced her presidential bid. hmmmmmm

[StephenS]

The Clintons donated more than $7 million dollars to the Clinton Family Foundation before she announced for president, and $3 million after.

[DMHendrix]

During that time, the Clintons paid $33.8 million in federal taxes and claimed deductions for $10.2 million in charitable contributions. The contributions went to a family foundation run by the Clintons that has given away only about half of the money they put into it, and most of that was last year, after Mrs. Clinton declared her candidacy.

**********­**********­**********­**********­**********­**********­**********­*****
Sorry..tho­ught I may have read it wrong.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

the foundation gets the interest. And, any money that isn't given away is till sitting there waiting to be given away in the future. The foundation hs NO paid employees. The Clintons get NO money from this foundation. The foundation has given money away every year. And, they don't get any more tax benefit this way than they would ifthey wrote the individual checks to the charities instead of through the foundation. Check the foundations tax records yourself to see what charities are getting the money. Also, the foundations admin expenses are very small. About $4,000 per year. Those are mostly accounting fees. Again, the Clintons receive NO payments from the foundation

[nton]

Employment for the Family

You may arrange for your heirs and descendants to receive salaries as "employees" of your Foundation. Simply name family members as replacement trustees to succeed you after death or resignation.

Many Foundations pay their directors using the difference between their required distributions and their annual income. If your Foundation is earning 10% annually on its assets, but only paying 5% annually to charities, the difference can be distribute for legitimate expenses, including salaries for the directors of the Foundation.

http://www.savewealth.com/planning/estate/foundations/

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

check the data. The Clitnon Family Foundation has NO PAID EMPLOYEES.

[DMHendrix]

Pardon my skepticism, but you can set up companies all day long with no paid employees. There was some kind of weird thing with the Hillary campaign and where they purchased a bunch of computer equipment.­.it was some company that was awarded Navy contracts for equipment too..but they had some bogus address, no paid employees, people associated with the company lived in New York and donated money to HRC's campaign, yet the "owner" of the company lived in the Middle East somewhere. The whole thing was just too weird. I can't help but always look for the ulterior motives..s­orry. I know that the Clinton Foundation has done some remarkable things and I give the contributors to that foundation enormous credit.

[huffhuffpass]

How much money has Miss Lewinsky made since 2000?

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

I think I have finally figured out what some of you are mistakenly thinking. You believe that the foundation takes in a certain amount of money each year and ends each year with a zero balance. therefore, you think if they only gave away a small amount in a year, they spent the rest of it on themselves. This is not the case. Whatever amount they don't give away in a specific year stays in the foundation to be given away in future years.

Some of you don't believe the small amount of administrative costs that have been reported either. But, I looked at their tax filings and the admin costs for 2006 were less than $4,000 and they ended the year 2006 with a balance of over 4 million to give away in the future. And, the balance earns interest and dividends which can also be given away in the future. They reported income in 2006 of over $100,000

you can view all of their filings yourslef here, it's public information

http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org/990s/990search/esearch.php

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

when you get to the link, type in Clinton Family Foundation and click on FIND

You willget a list of every year's tax filing. IN these filings you will see the total amount donated and earned in interest / dividends each year. You will see the administraive costs for each year. You will see that Bill, Hillary and Chelsea have NEVER received any compensation.

You will see the complete list of charities the foundation gave to each year

[cakelady]

As far as I know they have two foundations, I posted the write up on the other already so look it up . Also posted is his group of philanthropists he started to kick off his work on aids in Africa. Brad Pitt met with him to discuss the project he was working on for the Katrina people. Apparently Clinton knows a lot of people and put him in touch with them also read that he talked with Jon Von Jovi while he was working on a project of building homes in Philadelphia. People fail to realize that Clinton has been involved in many good projects for people since he has become a private citizen. He has many connections and puts them in touch with the right people to help them.

[Dyogenes]

You will see almost NOTHING actually expensed to real bona fide charity work--like food or medicine going directly to needy people. The biggest single item is over $8 MILLION for the Global Initiative Conference. Compared with other Foundations like Heinz, Gates, Ford,etc who list details for each Grant about How Much was Given to What Group for What specific purposes, there appears little more than a shell-game of self-dealing with the bulk of money going to conferences, staffing, consultants, "program services", etc--all raising eyebrows and probably ultimately leading to an IRS audit.

[SanityNowPlease]

In my mind, the question is not that the Clinton Family Foundation was formed but WHY it was formed. What PURPOSE was it intended to serve?

If there are people here who believe that the Clinton's can use the foundation money like a personal bank account, they would of course be utterly wrong. If there are some people here who think that simply because the Clinton's made "charitable contributions to a private trust they control constitutes "good works," they would be wrong. The proof is in the charters that created the foundation and the dispersals that are made. As fare as I can tell form the documents I have seen, an utter lack of "good works" have been facilitated by this particular foundation. So what is the purpose? I know that they have already received a very healthy tax advantage form the creation of this private foundation and I know that, while they can't use it like an ATM, they still have the control over the funds. The money is still there, controlled by them, right?

It is just a question and I think a fair question.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

well check the link. I thnk you will be amazed at the political power they have been trying to curry by donating to their local volunteer fire dept, universities, churches, medical research and such.

when you read the actual tax filings you will come to the conclusion that most of the posters here have been very unfair in their comments without actually looking at the data.

I don't know what you consider a lack of good works. I looked at 2006 and 2005 and in those two years they gave away close to 2 million dollars to a large variety of charities.

[oshpd1]

Did you let people know who keeps the records. Gloria Clinton. Do you remeber the Rose Law firm in Arkansas? Do you remeber who was a partner in the Rose Law Firm? Do you remember Bills special deals in Arkansas? Do you think the 990 is 100% accurate? Are 990 forms audited by the government. This form is a required form to be a foundation. Is this foundation listed with the Registary of Trusts?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6470450895164255089

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

I think Gloria Clinton is associated with the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation. It is much larger and brings in and disperses over 60 million per year all over the world. It has nothing to do with the Clinton Family Foundation.

[StephenS]

Sorry, oshpd1, but Gloria Clinton has nothing to do with Hillary or Bill Clinton. Gloria started a foundation she named The Clinton Family Foundation to give money to high school students in Salinas, California, who want to go into the construction trade.

[mesuki]

All I know is if the Clintons are donating money, there has to be something in there for them. Tha'ts just the way they are. They don't do anything that does not profit them in some way. Reputation is something that people should keep clean,cause once it's tainted you can change it. The Clinton's have a very bad reputation for being dishonest and taking illegal campaign funds . that reputation will be with them till the day they die.......­. They just can't be trusted!

[SanityNowPlease]

of course there is something in it for them: they get a huge tax break and get to maintain control over the money and get to disperse it slowly over time if the so decide. This is what super wealthy people, of which there are about 14,500 and of which they are a part, do.

[Gary47]

Good thing we live in a "Christian" nation where people are forgiving.­..

[pertello]

Those pictures of Bill pointing the finger always rub me the wrong way. I hate people who browbeat you into taking their point of view. Bill is much too pushy and aggressive in his speeches. I think his negativity and Hillary's is totally turning off a lot of their former supporters. I understand they believe they're the best team to run the country. But it probably isn't going to go their way and they seriously need to accept that fact. They both look like they're ready to spontaneously combust!

[SShaw490]

I think some people are missing an important point - The money is irrelevant to the Clintons. The Clintons can pick up the phone and get money. The point is the power. They say they gave $10 million to charity, then you find out it's THEIR charity, where they can direct the money to buy themselves as much political power as possible. They didn't give it to the American Lung Association, or the United Way, or any of the kinds of charities that we normal people associate with. They gave it to a charity that can be used to curry favor and provide them the maximum political return on investment.

The Clinton brand is a (very successful) business, and like any other business, they have to reinvest money into it. That $10 million was just reinvested capital, on which they expect a hefty return.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

go to this link
http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org/990s/990search/esearch.php

type in Clinton Family Foundation and do a FIND

you will find each years tax filing and each contains a list of all the charities that the foundation gave to.

[PennP]

The Foundation Center is a PROMOTIONAL organization. It is not regulatory, does not provide oversight, audits, or anything that would constitute a critical function. I would not consider its data valid as the sole or even chief source of information to vet a foundation or nonprofit.

[FCBarca]

Clintons, money, power, lies and maniacal behavior..­.What a combination

[Teri]

surprise surprise, they are selfish. who would have known it? duh? of course it went to their so called foundation, who does it help but themselves! and they get a tax deduction for that? talk about a bunch of bs!

[flyguy14222]

I can see the village has let the idiots out tonight.

[butchie65]

Yah, time to go back to your village there guy !

[cakelady]

Do you know anything about the Clinton Foundation? They do a lot. Here's just one area:

Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI)
The Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) strives to make treatment for HIV/AIDS more affordable and to implement large-scale integrated care, treatment, and prevention programs. Since its inception, CHAI has helped bring AIDS care and treatment to over 750,000 people living with HIV/AIDS around the world. Its activities have included AIDS care and treatment in Africa, including the brokering of drug distribution agreements. During President Clinton's 2006 trip to Africa, CHAI signed agreements with several new countries. Over the course of the past year, CHAI increased the number of partner countries and members of the Procurement Consortium, which can purchase AIDS medicines and diagnostic equipment at CHAI's reduced prices, to 66. [1] CHAI launched the Pediatric and Rural Initiatives in 2005 to focus on bringing AIDS care and treatment to those most often marginalized- children and those living in rural areas. CHAI also negotiated agreements that reduce the prices of second-line drugs and rapid diagnostic tests. In May, 2007, CHAI and UNITAID announced agreements that help middle-income and low-income countries save money on second-line drugs. The partnership also reduced the price of a once-daily first-line treatment to less than $1 per day.

Bill Cllinton has been working on aids and other projects ever since he has entered privite life. He works on other projects too.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

There are two foundations. This article is talking about the Clinton Family Foundation. The one you are talking about is the much larger William Jefferson Clinton foundation.

They BOTH do good works

[flyguy14222]

Yikes! Even the NYT is fu*%ing up a story now! First, of course the money goes to the foundation. DUH, that is the instrument that is doing great things. If one were to check the FACTS, the AIDS initiative alone dispersed over 16m in 06 . No, they didn't travel the globe handing out checks, the money was used in a much more beneficial way, mainly by lowering the price of life saving drugs. Until you Obamababies can show your guy matching the good that the Clinton Foundation does; I suggest you shut your yap and try and do something good today. Constantly searching for the bad in one will age you quickly.

[Dahveed]

The NYT has endorsed Ms. Clinton. Why would they report a distortion of the facts? The Clinton's behavior with this self-serving "charity donation" continues to illustrate how they simply cannot act unless there is personal gain to be had. What a dishonest sham! Simply disgusting!

[flyguy14222]

Get the facts and speak what you know about. You are an idiot if you think the foundation is a self serving mechanism.­....I know several millions folks who have been helped and would take you to task on that one. With this stupid shit being slung around...y­ou can be sure of defeat in NOV no matter who the nominee is.

[SShaw490]

First of all, Clinton's money didn't start getting distributed at all until Hillary decided to run for office. Second, are you under the impression that the AIDS money went to poor countries? No, it went to drug companies. Which is appropriate, because at least a portion of it - probably most of it - came from drug companies to begin with.

The point of this is that Bill and Hillary have made a hell of a lot of money in the last 8 years, the vast majority of it without really rendering any kind of valuable service, and it's only reasonable to wonder who all might have contributed and have an expectation of future "access". If you turn the situation around and found out that Barack Obama made $109 million in the last 8 years without really having an job, you'd be interested in where it came from.

[hubbstan]

I think the Clintons made $129 millions in the last 7 years. Last year along they made $20 millions. Many Hillary supporters pointed finger at Obama not being as generous. I believe the Obama hasn't made enough money to establish an Obama fundation. They only paid off their student loads in recent years and they have two very young children to raise. While Chelsea Clinton is 28 and even she makes more than $100K in salary by working for Bill Clinton's donor. Please look at some facts before heating up your accusations of others.

[cakelady]

Funny, that's not the way I read it. From what I understand they always gave 10 percent of their earnings to charity. Someone did research and found out Obama's gave less than 1 percent until he had thoughts of running for office. He then uped to amost 5 percent. I will try to post the item I found here on another thread in Huffington. One person posted 76 lies told by Obama and I must say they were interesting. Wish I knew where she got all her information. Posts were by someone named Mimorye.

[SShaw490]

Also, if the foundation distributed $16 million before '06, and the article says it didn't begin distributing any of the Clinton money until last year after Hillary announced her candidacy, who else is donating, how much are they donating, and what could one reasonably expect them to want in return? You could ask the same question about the Clinton presidential library, I think.

[cakelady]

Boy, you people don't miss a beat. You enjoy tearing people down even when they do good works. I can't believe it. People do not know, but boy do they have their own spin on what the Clinton's did with there money to charity. Do you read and see how shallow you all sound? You even down when they give to charity. Well, Hillary gave all her proceeds from the book she wrote "It takes a village" $5 million to charity. Let's see what comments will come out of that one. I bet nothing good. The Obama fans don't dissappoint. They will find fault I'm sure. Especially when I say that Obama kept all his money from the book he wrote.

[jeg]

I believe that there are two foundations here... The "Clinton Foundation", noted for it's good works, but apparently doesn't receive much in donations from the Clintons themselves, and the "Clinton FAMILY Foundation", which has three officers: William J, Hillary R., and Chelsea Clinton.

Apparently the Clinton Family Foundation received the bulk of the 10.2 million in charitable contributions reported (although the NYT article doesn't say how much actually went to the foundation), and only began disbursing funds as Sen. Clinton ramped up her presidential run.

That's assuming I'm understanding the stories correctly. Or, I suppose I could just hurl random insults, but it's much more fun to try to understand what's going on. :)

[vippy]

Clinton's did something good for the people rather than for themselves? Nothing they ever did
was for the good of the country!

[SShaw490]

Here's the bottom line - Hillary's constant refrain is that "she's been vetted". I've been saying from the beginning that she hasn't. Now, the vetting can finally start.

(1) Disregarding the $35 million from their books (an extraordinaly amount for two ghost-written books, by the way), they've made roughly $75 million in 8 years, or about $10 million a year;
(2) Of that, they donated $10 million to their own foundation, which only recently began dispersing the money;
(3) So where did that $75 million come from originally? From whom, and for what kind of work or service, and how high is the likelihood that some of those people may want future access to a Clinton white house?
(4) Since the Clinton foundation is a part of their money trail, who else donated to it, and how much did they donate, and where did the money go (specifically - to what companies or other entities did it go)?

Like I've said before, people who cough up that kind of money expect more than a night in the Lincoln bedroom...

[Ping]

This amount of money always has string attached.

[flyguy14222]

Hey BOZO, how about doing a bit of homework before regurgitating the line from HQ?

[SShaw490]

What part are you contradicting?

[JavaCityGal]

How about dropping the vile and hate, it will only make you age -- according to you. Are you not capable to having a discussion without calling someone a bozo? That says a lot about you, and takes away credibility from any point that you're trying to make. No one listens to or takes seriously a name calling hateful person.

[bobbyvassallo]

This tax dodge is done often by families with money. Give to taxes, or donate. And, when you can donate to yourself, you win. Family foundations are the best ways for parents to leave foundations for their children to run, so the child has a permanent income running the foundation after Mom and Dad are gone. We know where Chelsea will be now.

It works... www.bobbyvassallo.net

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

except if you bothered to check the details you would find that none of the Clintons, including Chelsea, receive any money from this foundation.

[SanityNowPlease]

as far as you know and this is based on?

[PennP]

They have yet to disclose the disposition of the proceeds this year, so no one can say they have not had the use of those funds. Given their dysfunctional relationship with reality, I would hope that no one with a remnant of common sense would take the word of the Clintons on anything. That includes Chelsea, who's following lockstep in the lying footsteps of her parents.

[livesimply]

Maybe that's true (so far,) but it is still sitting there and wasn't even donated until she started running.

[jsinclair]

Well, the three of them were on the Board of Directors. The fourth Clinton on the board, Gloria Clinton, received over $250,000 in 2005.

Foundations like this are set up by lawyers and accountants almost like a personal Roth IRA for the uber-rich. They money donated to them is tax deductible and the money they have (and generate) is tax-exempt. How sweet is that?

[SShaw490]

But the Clintons control it, and can apply those funds to the "causes" that give them maximum political leverage.

In Clinton-land, EVERYTHING is a political asset to be used to maximize and consolidate power.

[EspritDeVoltaire]

How inspirational. I will be contacting our attorney Monday to begin setting up FAMISHED, Francois And Marie's International Society Housing Endearing Dogs.

I do know that we will be required to have a certain percentage of outside contributions to be legally compliant so I will be giving out handmade aluminum foil "Good Girl" or "Good Boy" brooches to all sponsors. Leave your e-mail address and I will contact you with our Paypal account info.

Thank you for supporting our noble efforts to create a better world for our house pets.

[spacealien]

LMAO

[PennP]

If the "Good Girl" brooch has pink rhinestones and a bow, I'm in.