Boone Pickens’s Philanthropic Goals

The oil tycoon Boone Pickens wants to help his favorite nonprofit groups find new ways of raising more money, he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

His $20-million donation last year to Oklahoma State University is one example.

Mr. Pickens made the gift with the stipulation that the university must find 25 alumni ages 65 to 85 who would agree to have the institution take out a $10-million life-insurance policy for them, with the university as beneficiary. The university found 27 such participants and the first policies went into effect in February.

To further bolster his philanthropic goals, Mr. Pickens started a new foundation last year with a $135-million gift and made plans for the foundation to cease operations and pay out its assets upon his death. He notes that “all of us have seen foundations that were started with one idea and you couldn’t even find that idea in them” after the original founder passed on.

Read The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s profile of Mr. Pickens.

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