The Joe and Jill Biden Foundation this past week approved a 13-person governance board that is charged with steering the project.
Former President Joe Biden has decided to build his presidential library in Delaware, an aide confirmed to CBS News on Saturday. The 82-year-old former president has tapped a group of former aides, friends and political allies to begin the heavy lift of fundraising and finding a site for the museum and archive.
The Joe and Jill Biden Foundation, this past week, approved a 13-person governance board that is charged with steering the project that includes former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, longtime adviser Steve Ricchetti, prolific Democratic fundraiser Rufus Gifford, a list provided to CBS News shows. Gifford will serve as the board’s chair.
Biden’s library team faces the daunting task of raising money for the 46th president’s legacy project at a moment when his party is divided about the way forward and many major Democratic donors have ceased writing checks.
It also remains to be seen whether corporations and institutional donors that have historically donated to presidential library projects — regardless of the party of the former president — will be more hesitant to contribute, with President Trump maligning Biden on a daily basis and savaging groups he deems left-leaning.The political climate has changed
« There’s certainly folks — folks who may have been not thinking about those kinds of issues who are starting to think about them », Gifford, who was named chairman of the library board, told The Associated Press. « That being said . we’re not going to create a budget, we’re not going to set a goal for ourselves that we don’t believe we can hit. »
The cost of presidential libraries has soared over the decades.
The George H.W. Bush library’s construction cost came in at about $43 million when it opened in 1997. Bill Clinton’s cost about $165 million. George W. Bush’s team met its $500 million fundraising goal before the library was dedicated.
The Obama Foundation has set a whopping $1.6 billion fundraising goal for construction, sustaining global programming and seeding an endowment for the Chicago presidential center that is slated to open next year.
