Biden Plans to Close Foundation When He Enters 2020 Race

Biden, the former vice president, and his wife, Jill, formed the nonprofit group after he left office in 2017. The group had raised $6.6 million by the end of that year, financing initiatives on issues like expanding gay rights, making college more affordable and ending violence against women.

The Biden Foundation also became a gathering place for Joe Biden’s longtime allies and political advisers in advance of a likely presidential campaign.

By preparing to unravel his flagship organization, Biden may be hoping to avoid some of the financial and conflict-of-interest questions that shadowed Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election, when her family foundation continued to operate and receive large donations and grants as she was pursuing the White House.

The Biden Foundation would likely suspend its activities immediately and then begin a longer process of gradually dismantling itself.

The people familiar with the foundation’s plans declined to discuss many of the specifics.

Biden is expected to announce his presidential candidacy as soon as the middle of this week.

The Biden Foundation is not the only nonprofit entity he created after leaving office, and the fate of the wider network of groups and university centers associated with him remains to be seen. He has backed other charities, including the Biden Cancer Initiative and the Beau Biden Foundation, and academic institutions like the University of Pennsylvania’s Biden Center for Diplomacy and Public Engagement.

A number of the senior officials at those organizations are people who have long been expected to join Biden’s presidential campaign or advise it on policy from the outside.

At least some of his foundation’s financial supporters are expected to help underwrite his presidential candidacy.

Biden’s charities have operated on a tiny fraction of the scale of the Clinton Foundation.

Should Biden back away from the race at the last minute, his foundation would likely continue operating, people familiar with the plans said.

But Biden’s closest allies expect him to become a candidate within days, and Biden began accepting checks for a presidential campaign last week.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.