T. Boone Pickens Foundation

The grantmaking focus is on education, philanthropy, voluntarism, arts, culture, and humanities primarily in Oklahoma, Virginia, and Texas. ² In 2008, Pickens launched the Pickens Plan to advocate for energy sources other than petroleum.  ³

Background

The T. Boone Pickens Foundation is a private foundation founded by the late oilman T. Boone Pickens. It is supported by the Pickens Abraham Foundation. ¹ Upon its launch, the T. Boone Pickens Foundation announced it would work to improve lives in North Texas and Oklahoma. ⁴

Pickens launched the foundation with a gift of $135 million in 2006. ⁴ The organization had donated more than $1 billion as of 2023. ³

The foundation says it focuses its donations on health and medical research; treatment and services; entrepreneurship; kids at risk; education and athletics, with a particular focus on his alma mater, Oklahoma State University; corporate health and fitness; and conservation and wildlife management. ⁵

The grant application process for the foundation is by invitation only, through a request for proposal process. ⁶

Founder

Boone Pickens has said: “I like making money. I like giving it away—not as much as I like making it, but it’s a close second.” ⁷ An Oklahoma native, he was born in 1928 and died in 2019. ³ In 1957, he founded the oil company that would become known as Mesa Petroleum. ³

During the 1980s, Pickens made several acquisitions of larger companies.  ³ In 1997, he founded BP Capital Management.  ³

In 2008, Pickens launched the Pickens Plan to advocate for energy sources other than petroleum. ³

Philanthropy

In 2023, the T. Boone Pickens Foundation gave $120 million to Oklahoma State University. ⁸ The foundation has given more than $652 million to Oklahoma State University.  ⁹

The foundation has donated more than $28 million to Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University.  ^{10  11}

In 2023, the T. Boone Pickens Foundation gave a $21 million gift to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. ¹

In 2023, the T. Boone Pickens Foundation contributed $3 million to the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Foundation.  ¹ The foundation previously committed to a $9.4 million pledge for the development of a digital geology consortium between the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Foundation and Oklahoma State University. ⁹

The foundation has given $10 million to Baylor Scott and White Health initiatives in 2012. ¹²

The foundation contributed $250,0000 to Junior League of Dallas in 2009. ¹³

In 2008, the foundation gave $250,000 to Boy Scouts of America for the Last Frontier Council in Oklahoma.  ⁹

The foundation made a $2 million gift to the Big Brothers, Big Sisters Foundation in 2009. ¹⁴

In 2008, the T. Boone Pickens Foundation teamed with the Rees-Jones Foundation to make matching gifts of $2 million each to Africa Mercy, the world’s largest non-governmental hospital ship. ¹⁵

Not long after its launch, in 2007 the foundation announced $50 million each for two University of Texas health care institutions: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.  ⁷

The Pickens Foundation pushed Oklahoma State University’s $1 billion Branding Success fundraising campaign; he called for other alumni to donate and agreed to match donations up to $100 million. ⁷

The foundation gave a $5 million grant to help develop an 8-acre outdoor science laboratory at the Dallas Arboretum & Botanical Gardens.  ⁹

The foundation gave $6.9 million to Park Cities Quail. ¹⁶

The foundation contributed more than $170 million to the Texas Park and Wildlife Foundation.  ¹⁶

Leadership

As of 2026, Ronald D. Bassett was the president of the T. Boone Pickens Foundation. ⁶

As of 2026, Robert L. Stillwell was the vice president, secretary, and treasurer of the T. Boone Pickens Foundation.  ⁶

As of 2026, Andrew Littlefair and Jay Rosser were officers with the T. Boone Pickens Foundation.  ⁶