T. Boone Pickens Foundation

August 5, 2010

Forty of the richest men and women in the country — including Tulsa's George Kaiser and Oklahoma State University alum T. Boone Pickens — will donate at least half their wealth to charities, according to The Giving Pledge, a charitable organization of billionaires.
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FEBRUARY, 2010

T. Boone Pickens announces he’ll give another $100 million to his alma mater Oklahoma State University as part of a $1 billion fundraising campaign. The $100 million estate gift will fund a major endowment for scholarships, said Pickens, who has now given more than $500 million to OSU.
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NOVEMBER, 2009

Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert recently presented the UT Dallas Center for BrainHealth’s Legacy Award to T. Boone Pickens, recognizing the legendary energy investor’s generosity and foresight in his support of the center’s brain health research.
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SPOTLIGHT

Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert (from left), T. Boone Pickens, Gordon Echtenkamp, president and CEO of the Dallas YMCA, and YMCA Strong Kids Capital Campaign co-chair Garrett Boone bike their way through a press conference announcing the Foundation's gift at the Downtown YMCA. The T. Boone Pickens Foundation focuses grants to organizations that operate in its core giving categories (see “About TBPF”). The current partner spotlight is the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas, the largest human care organization in Dallas.

The Foundation’s gift of $5 million, the largest the Dallas YMCA has ever received, is part of the organization’s $31 million Strong Kids Capital Campaign. It will help create a new and modern place downtown business employees to work out, as well as a health organizational center for the individuals and families who are part of the expanded residential population moving into condos and apartments in the revitalized downtown residential community. The center, which will be renamed the T. Boone Pickens YMCA, is undergoing extensive renovations to be completed early fall of 2009.

“Dallas is my home, and where I can help out the most is where I want to put my money,” says Pickens, a YMCA patron in his younger years who has long advocated the physical fitness of his employees. “I’m an old Y person. And this building obviously needed help. They made a good presentation to us, and we were happy to do our part to help them.”

YMCA Pickens’ original company, Mesa Petroleum, was among the first companies in America to institute a corporate wellness program. In the late 1970s, Pickens bought all Mesa employees memberships to the YMCA. His catch to the membership, however, was “use it or lose it.” Pickens, now 80 years old, is still committed to personal health and fitness with a rigorous daily exercise program.

“We are thrilled that Mr. Pickens, a longtime health advocate, chose to help make this great project a reality,” says Gordon Echtenkamp, president and chief executive of YMCA Metropolitan Dallas. The donation will help the downtown YMCA better serve the fitness needs of a clientele quickly changing from primarily center-city business people to a blend with more full-time, downtown residents, he says.

The YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas, established in Dallas in 1885, serves seven counties and operates more than an additional 100 program sites. Its mission is to put Christian values into practice through programs that build a healthy spirit, mind and body for all.

For more information, visit www.ymcadallas.org.