How exactly was Barack Obama able to donate that much money while he was serving as President? He made a total of $10.8 million before taxes while serving as president. Of that total, $7.5 million came from sales of his books, Dreams From My Father (which made $4.5 million), Audacity Of Hope, and Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters (the two aforementioned books made $3 million combined). He earned a salary of $3.1 million as the commander in chief, and he made an additional $120,000 from miscellaneous sources. Obama donated his money to a variety of different causes, but the cause he overwhelmingly gave the most support to centered on children; he gave away over half of his donations to causes that support children. He gave $48,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs, $19,500 to the Mosaic Youth Theater Of Detroit, and $13,500 to the Christopher House, which is a group based in Obama’s hometown of Chicago that support poor working families. He also gave $20,500 to groups fighting hunger in Illinois and $11,500 to a Chicago’s Midtown Educational Foundation. The largest beneficiary of Obama’s donations was the Fisher House Foundation, which supports families of veterans. They received a total of $392,000 from the former president, money that appears to have come from Of Thee I Sing. The former president pledged to donate all of his post tax proceeds from the book to the Fisher House Foundation in order to support a scholarship fund for children of wounded and fallen soldiers. In addition, Obama donated money in the wake of tragedies, including the Boston bombing in 2013 ($2,000 to a fund that helped families affected by the bombing), the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 ($2,000 to the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation, which promotes gun control), and the Haiti earthquake in 2010 (he donated $16,000 to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund).
