George W. Bush raises $500 million for his library, Former President George W. Bush has already raised more than $500 million for his presidential library. A report from Yahoo News on Wednesday said that the library is set to open later in April.
“It was our goal to raise $500 million by the time the George W. Bush Presidential Center was dedicated, and we reached that goal,” Mark Langdale, president of the George W. Bush Center, tells Time Magazine’s Zeke Miller.Bush has now emerged as one of the most successful post-presidency fundraisers with this total of over $500 million. In order to see how others compare, Bill Clinton had barely raised the $165 million needed to cover the cost of his presidential library when it opened in 2004 in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Clinton has gone on to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years for his foundation though.
The Bush Library will be dedicated on April 1, 2013, and will officially open on May 1. It cost an estimated $250 million to build, and according to officials, the money raised will go toward the construction and operating costs of the library. The rest of the Bush-raised $500 million will go to the George W. Bush Institute.
The Bush Library is located on the campus of Southern Methodist University.
There is no word at this time if the identity of the library's donors will be released. Under law, presidential libraries do not need to make the names of its financial supporters public.