Leland Fikes Foundation

Background

Leland Fikes Foundation was founded in 1954 by Leland Fikes, a prominent Texas oil and gas executive of the early-to-mid 20th century who was described at the time of his death as having many oil and real estate dealings that reached into “many states and the District of Columbia.” Charitable work done by Fikes included donating a site for the Wadley Research Institute and Blood Bank, to be named the Leland Fikes Research Center, and funding “many civic and social organizations in Dallas.” ³

According to 2021 tax documents, the foundation had more than $210 million in assets and distributed $4.9 million in grants while incurring $3 million in operating costs. The foundation’s website states that it has disbursed $212 million in grants since 1954 through 3,171 individual grants to 665 different organizations. The foundation has made 44 grants of $1 million or more in its history. ^{2 4}

From 2011 to 2021, the foundation states that it has disbursed more than $63 million in grants with an average grant of $136,000. ¹

Funding Priorities

Leland Fikes Foundation focuses its funding on “reproductive health and justice” and abortion advocacy organizations, civic engagement funding to promote left-of-center public policy advocacy, and expanding voting access. ⁵ The organization also prioritizes funding to Dallas area social service and community organizations, and medical institutions by invitation only. ⁵

The foundation has also expressed a commitment to left-of-center diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideology in its grant making, stating that “just as systemic racism and other structural inequities permeate all areas of society, we seek to further equity through all areas of our grant making. Applicants should be prepared to share how racial equity informs their program development and implementation.” ⁵

Leland Fikes Foundation is a member of Funders for Reproductive Equity, formerly the Funders Network on Population, Reproductive Health, and Rights, a network of more than 50 center-left and left-of-center grantmaking organizations that support pro-abortion causes, with focuses on ethnic minorities and transgender people. Other members of Funders for Reproductive Equity include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the United Nations Foundation. Arabella Advisors, a left-of-center philanthropic consulting company, advises the coalition. ⁶

Grantmaking

Organizations that have received grants from the Leland Fikes Foundation include the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the Democracy Fund, Center for Reproductive Rights, Physicians for Reproductive Choice, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas Foundation, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the ACLU Foundation of Texas. ^{7 1}

The foundation has routinely given grants of over $1 million to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, providing $2.4 million to the foundation as part of Planned Parenthood’s 2021 capital campaign. ¹

The foundation also provides significant funding to medical organizations for a variety of medical research projects and programs. In 2021, the foundation provided $3.75 million to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center for neuro-high intensity focused ultrasound and $500,000 to endow the Lee Fikes Chair in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. ¹

Leland Fikes Foundation is a leadership donor to the Dallas Foundation’s Racial Equity Fund, which launched in 2021 and dispersed $2.5 million in 2022 to 25 organizations. Other donors to the fund included Leland Fikes Foundation, Jaggers Family Fund, NexPoint Philanthropies, The Rainwater Charitable Foundation, The Reis-Bisor Foundation, The PKW Fund of The Dallas Foundation, Harold Simmons Foundation, Texas Capital Bank, Truist Charitable Fund, and the Paula Walker Fund of The Dallas Foundation. ⁸

Grantees included the Black Heart Foundation, Builders of Hope Community Development Corporation, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Dallas Education Foundation, Impact Ventures, Southern Dallas Progress Community Development Corporation, Texas Pride Impact Funds, Union Development Corporation DBA-Project Unity, and United to Learn. ⁹

People

Leland Fikes died in 1966 and was survived by his son Lee Fikes. Lee Fikes and his wife Amy Fikes are the treasurer and president of the Leland Fikes Foundation, respectively. Other board members of the foundation include Catherine F. Lavie and Lauren Blitzer. Another family member, Brendan Fikes, received $131,000 in compensation from the foundation in 2021. The foundation also paid the Fikes Family office $1.3 million in 2021 for management fees. ¹⁰