The Obama Foundation is seeking 100 unpaid volunteers to open an $850M facility

The Obama Foundation is looking for 100 unpaid volunteers to work alongside the former president’s highly paid partners at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago when it opens in June.

Officials are making non-payment contests based on former President Barack Obama’s record of public engagement. The hiring push comes after Fox News Digital reported that the organization’s CEO, former top Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, earned $740,000 in 2024.

Foundation officials told Fox News Digital that volunteers will assist about 300 full-time and part-time employees at the long-delayed center, which the organization is promoting as a $3.1 billion economic booster for the Windy City’s South Side.

The new program will see 75 to 100 volunteers, known as “ambassadors,” greet and guide visitors to the campus and share information about exhibits in the 22-story museum tower, sports center and Chicago Public Library branch, among other services. It is expected to expand in the future.

The foundation describes the volunteer program as an important part of its mission, saying that volunteers represent its values ​​both locally and in the community.

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It is not clear how much the salary of those salaried workers is. However, the organization’s most recent tax filing provides insight into compensation at the organization’s top levels.

Federal filings viewed by Fox News Digital show Jarrett received $740,000 in 2024, 2023 and 2022, while several former Obama White House officials have collected six-figure salaries as foundation managers.

Total wages and benefits at the base increased from $18.5 million in 2018 to $43.7 million in 2024 as the workforce increased to 337 employees and annual revenue reached nearly $210 million, according to the documents. The foundation’s headquarters are in Chicago’s Hyde Park, where it conducts leadership and community programs in the US and internationally.

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Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett, left, and the Obama Presidential Center under construction in Chicago’s Jackson Park, right. The Foundation reported about $210 million in total revenue by 2024, according to organization documents. (Fox 32; Steven Ferdman/Getty)

However, the foundation is looking to have a group of unpaid volunteers to help with the new presidential center. It is common for presidential libraries, museums and nonprofit cultural centers to hire unpaid volunteers.

“Volunteering has been central to President Obama’s vision of community life since his early days as a community organizer on Chicago’s South Side,” the foundation said in a press release.

Jarrett, one of the Obamas’ closest advisers, said in a statement that the center will be “a place where the world meets the great city of Chicago, and our volunteers will help bring that vision to life every day.”

He became CEO in 2021 and oversaw the development of the 19.3-acre facility in Jackson Park.

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The foundation promoted the facility as a catalyst for economic revitalization on Chicago’s South Side, citing $3.1 billion in projected economic activity over 10 years and 5,000 construction jobs tied to the $850 million campus. Those figures come from an economic analysis conducted by Deloitte Consulting LLP.

According to the foundation, more than 50% of construction contracts have been awarded to different firms, 33% of construction workers are from South and Side communities, and 798 residents are enrolled in construction apprenticeship programs.

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The main tower of the Obama Presidential Center rises above Jackson Park in Chicago as construction continues on privately owned land. (Fox 32 Chicago)

The center is scheduled to open on Juneteenth, the state holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.

Other Obama administration officials have also received substantial compensation from the foundation over the years, including former White House political director David Simas, who earned more than $600,000 a year while leading the agency from 2017 to 2020, and Adewale Adeyemo, who became Biden’s deputy Treasury secretary and earned nearly $50,000.

Several other leaders with ties to the Obama administration received between $300,000 and $400,000 a year, according to tax filings.