T. Boone Pickens may not have weasled out of his million-dollar dare with John Kerry, but that doesn't mean the Swift-Boating Dallas oilman doesn't share the wealth with others. Indeed, just today Pickens shows up at the No. 8 spot on The Chronicle of Philanthropy's annual list of America's Top Donors; he's between New York City mayor and would-be independent presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg and Los Angeles-based investment manager Robert Day.
Says the Chronicle, Pickens planted $200.8 million last year, giving most of that to the T. Boone Pickens Foundation founded in '06. Among his other beneficiaries: Grace Presbyterian Ministries Faith Hospice in Irving, the Museum of Nature and Science and the Dallas Arboretum. And none of that takes into account how much Pickens doled out on account of his no-account son. --Robert Wilonsky