What does the Clinton Foundation do?

The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation builds partnerships between businesses, NGOs, governments, and individuals everywhere to work faster, better, and leaner; to find solutions that last; and to transform lives and communities from what they are today to what they can be tomorrow.

Since our founding, the Foundation has focused on tackling a number of the world's greatest challenges: Global Health; Climate Change; Economic Development; Health and Wellness; and improving opportunity for Girls and Women.

Because of our work, nearly 35,000 American schools have provided kids with healthy food choices in an effort to eradicate childhood obesity; more than 150,000 farmers in Malawi, Rwanda, and Tanzania are benefiting from climate-smart agronomic training, higher yields, and increased market access; working with partners, more than 8.5 million trees and tree seedlings have been planted to strengthen ecosystems and livelihoods; over 600,000 people have been impacted through market opportunities created by social enterprises and health and wellbeing programs in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa; through the independent Clinton Health Access Initiative, over 11.5 million people in more than 70 countries have access to CHAI-negotiated prices for HIV/AIDS medications; an estimated 85 million people in the U.S. will be reached through strategic health partnerships developed across industry sectors at both the local and national level; and members of the Clinton Global Initiative community have made more than 3,600 Commitments to Action, which have improved the lives of over 435 million people in more than 180 countries.

How is the Clinton Foundation staffed?

The foundation is a unique organization that has created a partnership model to tackle our world’s biggest challenges. Our senior leadership reflects this collaborative approach, with more than 200 years of management experience in diverse fields including global logistics, international development and finance.

How are Foundation salaries funded?

All Foundation employees are paid for work through the Foundation payroll. As a former President, President Clinton has separately allocated funding for a private office and for associated costs (rent, utilities, and salaries and benefits for staff). No Foundation staff are paid for Foundation work with taxpayer dollars.

How was Secretary Clinton involved with the Foundation and its partners while she was Secretary of State?

Secretary Clinton was not involved in the work of the Foundation when she was serving as Secretary of State. During her time in office, she attended the Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative – as did many other national and international leaders, including heads of state, U.S. Cabinet members and President Obama himself.

After leaving office, she served on the Board of Directors of the Foundation, and helped launch three initiatives:

No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project is an initiative to inspire and advance the full participation of girls and women around the world;

Too Small to Fail, is an initiative to help parents and businesses take meaningful actions to improve the health and well-being of children ages zero to five, so that more of America’s children are prepared to succeed in the 21st century;

Job One, an effort to help close a critical gap in our country's education and economic systems through business-designed and implemented training, hiring, and mentoring pathways for youth.

Is the Foundation a partisan, political organization?

No. Both in legal standing as a 501(c)(3) organization, and in practice, the Foundation is apolitical. We serve only the millions of people around the world whose lives we seek to improve. In fact, the Foundation has a long tradition of working across the aisle. This has included work, first with President George H.W. Bush and later George W. Bush, in response to natural disasters in the Indian Ocean, New Orleans and Haiti; the establishment of the Presidential Leadership Scholars Program; and countless commitment makers and featured speakers at CGI.

Who contributes to the Foundation? Where can I find a list of Foundation donors?

We are proud to have more than 300,000 contributors; 90% of our donations are $100 or less. Like all philanthropic organizations, the Foundation depends on contributions to pursue our work around the world.

While not required by any law, but in keeping with a long-held commitment to transparency, the Clinton Foundation has for years listed all contributors dating back to the Foundation’s beginning on our website.

What do contributors receive in exchange for donations?

All of our supporters – corporations, non-profits, and individuals – get something in return, which is helping to improve lives around the world. Our contributors give to us because they want to see the circle of opportunity extended around the world; they want to see communities, businesses and governments working together to address problems that we all face but collectively have the know-how and resources to fix. That is what the Clinton Foundation does every day.

Do the Clintons receive any income or personal expense reimbursement from the Foundation?

No. President Clinton and Chelsea Clinton, who serve on the Board of Directors, do not take a salary from the Clinton Foundation and receive no funding from it. Secretary Clinton did not take a salary when she served on the Board of Directors.

How does the Foundation measure the impact of its programs?

We regularly conduct a thorough internal review of our programs – including the impact of each initiative, based on key metrics. For example, metrics include the number of lives affected by CGI commitments; the number of tons of carbon emissions reduced by our home energy affordability loan and building retrofit program; and the number of farmers in Africa who are seeing better livelihoods and incomes as a result of our development work. These impact metrics are reported yearly in our annual reports.

For large scale projects or initiative-wide metrics, we will engage external groups to conduct comprehensive analysis and evaluation. For example, last year at the 10th CGI Annual Meeting, we presented a report done in concert with Palantir, one of the world’s leading computer software and services company that specializes in data analysis, and offers the world's leading data integration platform. With the help of Palantir’s data analysis platforms, we looked at CGI Commitments to Action and evaluated what’s worked, what hasn’t, and what remains to be done – aiming to be more efficient and effective in the years to come. This report analyzed the 2,872 Commitments to Action that were made from the first CGI in 2005 through 2013.