Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has raised only a small fraction of the money needed to construct a presidential library, leaving uncertainty about when a library might be built and its viability as a stand-alone project, according to public filings and interviews with his donors.
In filings with the Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Biden’s library foundation revealed that it had not received any new donations in 2024, the final year of his presidency. The foundation was instead seeded entirely with $4 million left over from his 2021 inauguration.
The library foundation declined to say what it had raised in 2025. It said that Mr. Biden was only now beginning to actively raise money. He is holding the first event for potential library donors on Monday in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood.
Still, Mr. Biden’s foundation told the I.R.S. this year that it expected to bring in just $11.3 million, total, by the end of 2027. That would be far below the pace set by other recent presidents, and far less than the $200 million that Mr. Biden’s aides say they want to raise eventually.
Partly because of that poor fund-raising, discussions are underway about consolidating a potential Biden library with pre-existing Biden institutions at the University of Delaware, according to four people who were granted anonymity to talk about the private planning process. That might allow the library to take advantage of the millions of dollars that the university, the former president’s alma mater, has already raised to build a “Biden Hall.”
So far, some of Mr. Biden’s most loyal contributors said they had not been contacted by anyone about giving to the library. Other Democratic donors have said that even if Mr. Biden asks them, they are unlikely to give money because they are focused on fighting President Trump or are embittered by Mr. Biden’s term in office.
John Morgan, a longtime Democratic donor who was one of Mr. Biden’s top bundlers, said he would not give “a penny” to the former president’s library, citing poor treatment from Mr. Biden’s staff.
“The Biden staff, they ruined any type of good library for him,” Mr. Morgan said. “He’ll be lucky to have a bookmobile.”
As a point of contrast, Mr. Morgan said he had dinner with former President Bill Clinton last week to discuss a possible donation to his library for an expansion. Mr. Morgan said Mr. Clinton and former President Barack Obama kept much better relations with their donors and supporters, which has enabled them to build large foundations and libraries.
Aides to Mr. Biden declined to make him available for an interview.
His library foundation said in a statement that it had delayed holding fund-raisers until now to allow for “intensive research,” including visits to other presidential libraries. Mr. Biden, who turned 83 this fall, has also been distracted. He has undergone radiation therapy for prostate cancer and had skin cancer lesions removed. And he has been working with the historian Ted Widmer on his memoir, according to people close to Mr. Biden.
The chair of the foundation is Rufus Gifford, a longtime Democratic fund-raiser who also served as the chief of protocol of the United States in the Biden administration. The two co-executive directors are Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, two of the Biden family’s most fiercely loyal lieutenants. Ms. Tomasini also serves as the secretary and Mr. Bernal as the treasurer. Its board is filled out by other Biden aides and appointees.
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Over the summer, the foundation contracted with a private firm, CCS Fundraising, to assess the financial prospects for the future library.
In late September, Mr. Biden and his wife, Jill, sent a letter to donors asking them to set up 45-minute meetings with the firm, to “help us assess potential support for our vision.”
“We would be grateful for your participation,” the Bidens wrote.
On Monday, the Bidens will meet with supporters for a reception in Washington hosted by Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, a Democratic donor who served as ambassador to Brazil under Mr. Biden.
Modern presidential libraries are enormous, including museums, event spaces and other add-ons. Mr. Obama’s still-unfinished “presidential center” in Chicago — not technically a presidential library, since it will not include hard copies of White House documents — will include a vegetable garden, a branch of the city library, and a basketball gym.
That requires hundreds of millions of dollars, which presidents must raise on their own. (The National Archives, a federal agency, can pay some operating costs — but only after the library is finished.)
Mr. Obama has raised $1.5 billion so far, according to new filings. He posted a video on social media this week announcing that his presidential center would open in June. Mr. Trump, who plans a library in Miami, says he wants to raise more than $950 million before he leaves office.
Mr. Biden has said little about his plans, beyond that he wants his library to be somewhere in Delaware, his home state. Aides say he envisions something smaller and cheaper than Mr. Obama’s center.
Even so, he appears far short of the $200 million goal.
Mr. Biden’s library foundation was incorporated in December 2024. Its only fund-raising for that year was the $4 million transfer from Mr. Biden’s presidential inaugural committee, according to tax filings and the committee’s president, Jeffrey Peck, a former Biden aide. That was more than half of the committee’s $6.9 million in leftover funds. Mr. Peck said the inaugural committee had not decided what to do with the remainder.
That has led some Biden donors to urge another idea: merging the president’s library with the University of Delaware’s existing Joseph R. Biden Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration.
That school, named in Mr. Biden’s honor in 2018, already has a Biden Institute and plans to build a large “Biden Hall” on the campus in Newark, Del. The university has raised at least $22 million for that building, state documents show — including $20 million that the Democratic-led Delaware state government agreed to pay this summer. The university has not said when the hall will be built.
For now, the Biden Hall and the Biden library are separate projects, competing for the same pool of donors. But many loyalists say they hope that the library could be housed inside the hall, turning two projects into one.
That might mean that Mr. Biden ends up with a much more modest library than Mr. Obama, or other recent presidents with huge free-standing buildings. But it could sharply reduce the amount Mr. Biden needs to raise.
The University of Delaware said it had not transferred any money to the Biden library foundation, and declined to comment about the prospect of a merger. The Biden library foundation also declined to say whether it was considering that prospect.
“We continue to be in an exploratory and planning phase,” said Kelly Scully, a spokeswoman for Mr. Biden.
Julie Tate contributed research.
David A. Fahrenthold is a Times investigative reporter writing about nonprofit organizations. He has been a reporter for two decades.
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