Gift overview in 2006

Biggest beneficiary: T. Boone Pickens Foundation
Donor's background: Mr. Pickens is the founder of Mesa Petroleum and BP Capital Management, in Dallas.

Donations in 2006

Mr. Pickens, 78, gave $160-million to establish the T. Boone Pickens Foundation, in Dallas. He has said he plans to give most of his charitable donations through the foundation from now on, though he may continue to make some gifts directly.

The foundation's giving will be distributed to groups throughout the country and focus primarily on conservation and wildlife management; corporate health and fitness; education and athletics; health and medical research, treatment, and services; and helping troubled children.

Mr. Pickens, who is chairman of the new foundation, has said he hopes to give away 80 percent of his fortune, estimated at $2.7-billion, while he is still alive. He has not yet decided whether to endow the foundation or simply donate money to it every year. He has said, however, that the foundation will eventually give away all of its money to charity at some point after his death.

In addition to starting his new foundation, Mr. Pickens gave more than $11.5-million to 82 nonprofit organizations, including the American Civil Rights Coalition, in Sacramento; the Communities Foundation of Texas, in Dallas; the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts; the Media Research Center, in Alexandria, Va.; and the Oklahoma State University Foundation, in Stillwater.

Mr. Pickens caused controversy in 2005 when he donated $165-million to Oklahoma State. The gift was given to build a $300-million athletics compound and finish construction of a football stadium, which Mr. Pickens helped support with a $20-million pledge in 2003. But some university faculty members accused Mr. Pickens of wielding too much influence over which athletics coaches the university hired, and Stillwater residents blamed him for pushing the university to speed up construction of the compound, which will displace hundreds of residential property owners.