March 11, 2010
President Obama made good on his promise to give his $1.4 million Nobel Prize money to charity, on Thursday releasing the names of the organizations which will benefit.
“These organizations do extraordinary work in the United States and abroad helping students, veterans and countless others in need,” Mr. Obama said in a statement. “I’m proud to support their work.”
Applying the motto that charity begins at home, Mr. Obama put Fisher House, an organization that provides housing for the families of American veterans, at the top of the list with $250,000. Fisher House was followed by the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, the project his two immediate predecessors are running to raise money for relief and reconstruction efforts in Haiti ($200,000).
White House officials said that the money will go directly from the Nobel Committee to the recipient charities, and will be released in the next few days. Mr. Obama promised that he would give his prize money to charity last fall, when the Nobel Committee stunned the world with its choice of Mr. Obama for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize less than nine months into his presidency.
Other charities receiving some of Mr. Obama’s prize money include the Posse Foundation, which tries to help non-traditional high school students get into college, The United Negro College Fund, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the Appalachian Leadership and Education Foundation, the American Indian College Fund, AfriCare and the Central Asia Institute, which promotes girls’ education in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
read:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/obama-gives-away-nobel-prize-money/