A group of current and former Texas Instruments C-suite executives have gifted $25 million to The United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, the organization announced on Friday — its largest-ever single donation.
The pooled contribution ― given in honor of local philanthropists Rich and Mary Templeton ― is the latest extension of the technology giant’s long and extensive history with United Way Dallas.
The multi-million dollar commitment “is the single largest gift from any source to UWMD, to date,” president and CEO Jennifer Sampson told The Dallas Morning News in an email.
Texas Instruments has been the group’s largest investor for over 70 years, having donated millions to the United Way’s Centennial Celebration in November, where the Templetons received the J. Erik Jonsson Award, the organization’s top honorific for volunteers.
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A co-founder of TI, Jonsson was a former Dallas mayor who headed the United Way of Dallas from 1961 to 1962.
“Rich and Mary Templeton have transformed how we build strong communities, demonstrating what becomes possible when visionary leaders commit to lasting change,” Sampson said in a statement.
“Together, they embody everything the historic J. Erik Jonsson Award represents—leadership that transforms both vision and action,” she added.
Rich Templeton, CEO of Texas Instruments and his wife, Mary Templeton chairmen of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas at the fundraising campaign in Dallas on Sept. 11, 2018. (Nathan Hunsinger/The Dallas Morning News)
Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer
Rich Templeton will formally retire from Texas Instruments as its chairman at the end of the year after a career spanning nearly 5 decades. His wife Mary is a former computer scientist who worked for General Electric and is president of the couple’s own philanthropic foundation, among other numerous nonprofit and educational leadership positions. She also co-chaired the United Way Dallas’ “Unite Forever” endowment campaign that topped its $105 million goal.
Mary Templeton and her husband, Rich, Texas Instruments’ chairman, announced in May that they would spearhead the United Way of Dallas’ 2018-19 fundraising drive
United Way of Metropolitan Dallas
A fixture on Dallas’ social and civic scene, the Templetons are no strangers to making large philanthropic gifts to institutions of higher learning.
In recent years, the couple gave $20 million to Southern Methodist University’s $1.5 billion capital campaign, a fundraising jolt that helped the institution to end the push years ahead of schedule. They have also donated a combined $91 million to Union College in New York, their alma mater, to promote more women in engineering and technology and $10 million to the University of Texas-Southwestern’s Brain Institute.
“Rich and Mary Templeton have made an enduring impact on North Texas — in business, in academia, on the well-being of our community, and on me,” said Haviv Ilan, TI’s president and CEO, in a statement.
“They have uniquely honed and nurtured a culture of giving inside Texas Instruments, as well as across our community,” Ilan added.
A ‘win-win’ for society
The latest infusion into UWMD’s coffers – and Templetons’ own extensive history of charitable giving – underscores the growing power of philanthropic dollars in a region where big donations are something of a competitive sport among wealthy families.
It’s also a symbol of a North Texas region in transition, where the rise of artificial intelligence and global finance is fashioning the Dallas-Fort Worth powerhouse economy into a linchpin of Texas’ broader ambitions.
Broadly speaking, the overwhelming majority of high-net-worth individuals in the United States are generous givers – particularly during the holiday season. In 2024, 81% of affluent households made charitable contributions, according to a joint study between the Bank of America’s private wealth unit and Indiana University.
The data found that affluent donors gave an average of $33,219 to charity — over 10 times the giving level of the general population – with the top three causes supported being basic needs (43%), religious services (38%), and health care/medical research (24%).
It’s what Scott Mueller, Goldman Sachs’ region head of the Southwest Region for private wealth Management, calls a “win-win for society….That people want to do more. It is inspiring,” he told The News in a recent interview.
As a local example, Mueller cited the creation of Klyde Warren Park, which cleaves Uptown Dallas from Downtown and straddles the Woodall Rodgers Freeway. Funded by Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren, the park is widely regarded as a modern-day feat of engineering and philanthropy.
Wealthy families have no shortage of projects to fund — including the arts, poverty alleviation, and higher education, he said. Still, “it’s been remarkably inspiring to me to see and even though I’ve been around it for years, you sort of never get used to people’s generosity. It’s just really impressive,” Mueller added.