Clinton Foundation Spent 66% of Funds in United States

According to the Clinton Foundation, two-thirds of its charitable spending in two recent years was done within the United States.

Politifact uncovered the striking statistic while performing a dubious fact check of Rush Limbaugh last week.

The foundation sent PolitiFact a rough geographic breakdown for program spending in 2012 and 2013. It cited expenditures split between 66.2 percent for the United States, 18.1 percent for South America, 5.6 percent for Southeast Asia, 4.9 percent for Sub-Saharan Africa, 3.6 percent for Central America and the Caribbean, 1.2 percent for West and Central Africa and 0.4 percent for Mexico.

Punditfact author Louis Jacobson writes the the totals were “more than we had expected to see in domestic spending.” He adds, “we’re checking with the foundation on why that was so high.” A Google search suggests no follow-up piece has been published.

The amount of money spent in the U.S. versus abroad is surprising in part because a visit to the Clinton Foundation website seems to emphasize their work abroad. For instance, as of this writing, the top of the Foundation’s website is a photo of an African woman along with a story titled “Follow the Trendlines in Africa.” A subheading reads, “The Clinton Foundation is working in Africa to improve lives & communities. See the work in action and learn.” But according to the information sent to Politifact, that work only represents 6.1% of Foundation spending.