George Bush is preparing to open his presidential library later this month in Dallas and has managed to raise $500 million, according to Yahoo!
This makes Bush one of the most successful ex-president fundraisers. Bill Clinton raised just $165 million when he dedicated his presidential library to Little Rock in 2004, although he's gone on to raise a lot of money through other ventures.
"It was our goal to raise $500 million by the time the George W. Bush Presidential Center was dedicated, and we reached that goal," said Mark Langdale, president of the George W. Bush Center.
The library, which will be dedicated on April 25 and opened to the public on May 1, was built for an estimated $250 million. The library is on the campus of Southern Methodist University.
The money raised will be used to cover construction costs. The rest of it will go to the George W. Bush Institute, a public policy foundation. The donors though, may not be unveiled. Under law, according to Yahoo!, presidential libraries don't have to name the donors and typically don't.
However, George H.W. Bush did name some of his donors of his presidential library by placing their names on a wall near the front entrance. His library is located in College Station, Texas.
Clinton's donors were discovered by accident in 2004 when a reporter accessed the files on a public computer. Clinton later disclosed the names anyway when President Obama announced Hilary Clinton as Secretary of State.
In related Bush news, his daughter, Jenna, 31, is set to deliver her first child in New York around the same time as the opening of the library, so she won't be in attendance.
