Obama Donates Nobel Prize Money to 10 Charities
(Credit:
AP)
The White House has announced that President Obama has donated the $1.4 million given to him in conjunction with the Nobel Peace Prize to ten charities, including the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund and the United Negro College Fund.
While President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last October for his work toward global peace, most of the money has gone toward charities focused not on peace but on educational opportunity.
The most money -- $250,000 -- went to Fisher House, which provides housing for families of patients being cared for at major military and VA medical centers.The Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, which raises money for long-term relief efforts in Haiti following that country's devastating earthquake, received $200,000.
$125,000 went to six different charities:
-- College Summit, which partners with schools with the goal of increasing college enrollment;
-- The Posse Foundation, which awards scholarships to "public high school students with extraordinary academic and leadership potential who may be overlooked by traditional college selection processes";
-- The United Negro College Fund, which offers scholarship and internship programs for more than 60,000 students per year;
-- The Hispanic Scholarship Fund, which awards scholarships and offers outreach support to the Hispanic community;
-- The Appalachian Leadership and Education Foundation, which offers scholarships and leadership curriculum to young people from Appalachia;
-- And the American Indian College Fund, which distributes scholarships to American Indian students and provides support for tribal college needs.
Two charities were awarded $100,000 each. One is AfriCare, which offers programs in Africa addressing health and HIV/AIDS, food security and agriculture, and water resource development. The other is the Central Asia Institute, which promotes education and literacy in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan with a focus on education girls.
"These organizations do extraordinary work in the United States and abroad helping students, veterans and countless others in need," President Obama said in a release. "I'm proud to support their work."
A White House spokesman tells CBS News that Mr. Obama is avoiding tax liability for the prize money by not accepting the award himself.CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller reports that the president is letting the Nobel Committee distribute the prize money according to his list of charities. He will not get tax deductions for the donations.
