Visitors walk toward the entrance of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora on July 2, 2026. (Photo by Kyle Martin/for the North Dakota Monitor)
MEDORA, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – Fundraising for the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library has eclipsed $500 million, exceeding the $450 million goal of the project that opened its doors July 4.
The library marks the fundraising milestone as its CEO announced his upcoming departure from his position, but likely not completely from the library.
The total fundraising includes about $79 million in commitments mostly spread over the next five years, Library CEO Ed O’Keefe said Wednesday. He declined to say how much money has been raised over $500 million.
Part of the money will go toward paying back a $70 million line of credit North Dakota’s Republican-controlled Legislature approved in 2023 as a backstop for beginning construction. The line of credit from the state-owned Bank of North Dakota gave library planners confidence to start construction in June 2023, and without it, the library would not have opened July 4, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, O’Keefe said.
“North Dakota just had its moment on the global stage, and people liked what they saw,” he said. Since then, 40,000 people have visited the library, he added.
The $450 million includes construction, exhibits, the campus and a $50 million operations endowment approved by the 2019 Legislature. That endowment is now valued at more than $60 million.
Library planners estimate an annual operating budget of $14 million, including $10 million from revenue such as admissions and retail and $4 million from endowment earnings. Library organizers planned to have a staff of 96 at the opening, nearly all of them in Medora.
The library must pay back the Bank of North Dakota line of credit in full by June 30, 2027, according to a bank spokesperson. The Legislature could weigh in on the terms, Library Executive Director Robbie Lauf said.
The 2025 Legislature approved a $5 million interest rate buydown for the line of credit. Library planners have enough funds committed to the project to repay the line of credit, O’Keefe said. The library is accepting “founding benefactor” commitments through Nov. 1, he added.
Lawmakers in 2025 also rejected a proposal for an additional $50 million in state funding to add to the library endowment.
Ed O’Keefe, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, speaks during a ceremony commemorating the placement of the last steel beam at the library in Medora on Aug. 14, 2024. (Photo by Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
O’Keefe said he doesn’t anticipate library backers asking the 2027 Legislature for money for fundraising purposes. But he did say there should be a dialogue between the state and the library about how the state might want to be involved going forward. The state stepped in at times and “really made something that wouldn’t have been otherwise possible happen,” he said.
“It is a really interesting partnership between the state and a private foundation where the state challenged the private foundation to do big and audacious things, and in return, there was an investment that has really, I think, paid dividends for the state,” O’Keefe said.
The 2019 Legislature approved the $50 million operations endowment, only accessible by library planners after they had raised $100 million in private donations, which they did by October 2020.
Additionally, the state gave a Destination Development Grant for $4 million from the Commerce Department for recreation trails and pavilions at the library.
Last month, the U.S. Senate passed a bill led by Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., for $50 million in federal grants to the library for preserving Roosevelt materials and providing educational programming, contingent upon the library raising $100 million in private funds. The bill is now in the House.
O’Keefe, who has been the library’s CEO since 2019, will be departing Sept. 18 for a new job as president and CEO of the WNET Group, a large independent public media organization that is the parent of New York’s foremost PBS station. A selection committee will look for O’Keefe’s successor through a national search, though he will have an ongoing role with the library that its board will determine.
Library planners expect 150,000 to 200,000 people will visit the library annually, with an annual economic impact of $42 million on the region.
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