[1] Major targets of Lee's donations include the Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.
Lee became a Girl Scout and ran for student government with the encouragement of her grandmother, a suffragist that instilled her early interest in politics.
In the early 1980s, Lee was invited to the board of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Boston by its treasurer, Steven Grossman.
[2] Lee co-founded the White House Project with Laura Liswood and Marie Wilson in 1998, creating magazine advertisements that promoted potential female presidential candidates, such as Hillary Clinton and Christine Todd Whitman.
The Foundation's goal is to produce non-partisan research for women candidates, as compared to EMILY's List, which only supports pro-choice Democrats.
[10] The Barbara Lee Family Foundation promotes the possibility of successful female presidential candidates by supporting women in lower political positions, such as national and state congressional races.
Lee foreshadowed her own future activism when she gifted all the women at her son Zach's first birthday with copies of the first Ms. magazine, founded by Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman Hughes.
Following her husband's 1993 affair with Laura Goldman, Barbara divorced Thomas Lee in 1995, leaving her with half of their combined personal wealth (approximately $210 million).