What USAID grants have flowed to Clinton-affiliated organizations since 2008, according to USAspending.gov?
Executive summary
USAspending.gov records show that, from fiscal year 2008 through 2024, USAID awarded federal funding to a single Clinton‑affiliated organization: the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), which received a roughly $7.49 million award used from 2019–2021; the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation shows no USAID awards in that period and Chelsea Clinton personally received no USAID compensation, according to fact‑checks that cite USAspending.gov [1][2][3].
1. Clear ledger: one Clinton‑linked USAID grant on record
A review of reporting that relies on USAspending.gov shows only one USAID award to an organization linked to the Clinton ecosystem since 2008: a March 2019 award to the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) for roughly $7.49 million, with expenditures recorded through February 2021 [1][3].
2. Distinguishing CHAI from the Clinton Foundation matters
CHAI was founded as a program of the Clinton Foundation but later became a separate nonprofit; media fact‑checks emphasize that CHAI is legally distinct from the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation and that USAspending.gov entries refer to CHAI rather than the family foundation [1][4].
3. The dollars: amount awarded and amount spent
Multiple fact‑checks using USAspending.gov report the award at about $7.49 million and note that CHAI spent a little more than $6 million of that grant between 2019 and 2021 for overseas health assistance, with specific USAspending entries documenting the award and obligations [1][3]. Reporting cites USAspending.gov’s award record for the grant and aggregate spending summaries [5][3].
4. What the CHAI grant funded
Contemporaneous reporting and the USAspending record indicate the CHAI award’s stated objective was to increase access to cost‑effective basic health services at community level and in health posts across provinces in Zambia, meaning the grant was coded as foreign assistance for health programming rather than domestic grants to the Clinton family or domestic foundation activities [3][6].
5. Claims that far exceed the public record
Viral posts claiming Chelsea Clinton or the Clinton Foundation took $84 million from USAID are contradicted by the USAspending.gov data: fact‑check outlets (Snopes, Newsweek, GV Wire, The Dispatch, Forbes) all trace the discrepancy to misreadings or misattributed charts and note the absence of any USAID awards to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation from FY2008–FY2024 [1][2][4][3][7].
6. Why the confusion persists: EINs, charts and social virality
Analysts point to mistakes such as charts built from employer identification numbers (EINs) that lump projects together, mislabeling of recipients, and rapid amplification on social platforms; high‑profile reposts and partisan narratives then converted a modest USAID grant to CHAI into exaggerated claims about Chelsea Clinton or the foundation [1][7][8].
7. Important caveats and data limits
USAspending.gov’s accessible records begin in fiscal 2008, so reporting constrained to that dataset cannot address awards earlier than FY2008; fact‑checks specify that their negative findings about USAID grants to the Clinton Foundation apply to FY2008–FY2024 and that fiscal 2025 records may not be complete [1][2]. Additionally, nonprofits evolve, split and rename entities, so identifying “affiliated” organizations requires care and legal definitions that reporting notes were respected when distinguishing CHAI from the foundation [4].
8. Bottom line
According to USAspending.gov as interpreted by multiple fact‑checks and mainstream reporting, USAID funding to Clinton‑affiliated groups since 2008 is limited to a single CHAI award of roughly $7.49 million (with about $6 million spent from 2019–2021); there is no record in the FY2008–FY2024 USAspending dataset of USAID grants to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation or of USAID payments to Chelsea Clinton personally [1][3][2].