A "Boone" for Philanthropy?

Will T. Boone Pickens save the world?

The current edition of Texas Monthly features a fascinating article about legendary oilman-turned-wind-farmer, T. Boone Pickens.

The piece, entitled "There Will Be Boone," details some of the Pickens Plan and the way that it is poised to make a serious change in our economy.

Pickens is also the mastermind of a charitable bonanza for his alma mater, OSU (which I blogged about here).

If the Pickes Plans works out and we manages to shift even a small portion of our energy usage over to alternative power, the returns for our community -- in the form of cost savings, new jobs created, better environment, etc. -- could be just as high as the financial returns to Mr. Pickens himself.

Forget social enterprise: this is a form of doing well by doing good that might never be surpassed.

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T. Boone Pickens' new video blog

This campaign that Boone Pickens is leading is just remarkable. The man is a stinkin' genius.

I love the raw feel of these videos... feels like you're right there with the billionaire himself
PickensPlan » VIDEO : A Big Day of Meetings

Will Boone Pickens and Al Gore join forces to save America?

I am amazed by what I am seeing from legendary oilaman T. Boone Pickens at his new Web site, PickensPlan. In brief, Mr. Pickens proposes to wean America from its addiction to oil in ten years. Check it out here:

http://www.pickensplan.com/

His message sounds shockingly similar to that of his political opponent, Al Gore, whose Democratic party was derailed in its attempt to elect John Kerry by Mr. Pickens' Swift Boat campaign. Check out Al Gore's plan here:

http://www.wecansolveit.org/

Or, watch the videos below.

T. Boone Pickens' Plan


Al Gore's Plan
(this video appears to be having some issues, so watch it here:
http://www.wecansolveit.org/pages/al_gore_a_generational_challenge_to_repower_america/

Do mega-gifts increase overall philanthropy?

Ross Perot Jr. claimed that, although the national economy is sluggish, charitable giving in Dallas has never been more robust. He then backed this up with a $50 million gift to the Museum of Nature & Science.

The problem with Perot's claim is that mega-gifts like this can easily mask a declining philanthropic environment. In a city like Dallas -- where Boone Pickens, Harold Simmons and others secure national headlines for their philanthropy -- it is easy for the general public to assume that charitable giving is up.

My concern, which I have seen borne out at Central Dallas Ministries, is that this gives many donors an excuse to avoid contributing: the attitude can almost be that "the mega-rich are taking care of that," followed quickly with a quieter "and they should."

For example: Central Dallas Ministries has raised over $25 million through public and private sources for the first phase of our capital campaign. Some of our donors have not realized that these funds are highly designated and do not help us to pay for operations.

As we have often joked in our office, "we could have marble desktops but be unable to afford the light bill."

Thankfully, overall fundraising is up at Central Dallas Ministries by more than 20% this year. This may not be the trend at other organizations: we benefit from a highly public profile.

Not all organizations are as fortunate, even though they are seeing the same increase in demand for services that we are -- the nation's food banks are reporting facing higher costs but feeding more people. At CDM, we have seen nearly 40% more people than at this same time last year.

What are you seeing at your organization?

Is fundraising up? More importantly, is fundraising up more than demand?

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Boone Pickens: World's Savviest Philanthropist?

OSU's highest profile alum has potentially managed to leverage $100M from the State of Oklahoma to match his latest 9-figure gift to the university.

Says ol' BP, "I got so much money, now I am just playin' with it."

OK, not really.

But close:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D90Q5T800.html

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