The Perot Foundation

The Perot Foundation

The Perot Foundation was established in 1953 by H. Ross Perot and his wife Margot, with initial funding from Perot's success at Electronic Data Systems (EDS), which he founded in 1962 and sold to General Motors in 1984 (per The New York Times, 1984). The foundation is headquartered in Dallas, TX, with an additional office in San Antonio. Its wealth origin is firmly tied to Perot's entrepreneurial career; he later founded Perot Systems in 1988, which was acquired by Dell in 2009 (per The Wall Street Journal, 2009). The foundation primarily operates as a grant-making entity, focusing on education, healthcare, and infrastructure projects in Texas. It has supported institutions like the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas (per the Dallas Morning News, 2012). While its investment allocation is not publicly detailed, the endowment is managed with a conservative posture, likely emphasizing fixed income and real assets to preserve capital for charitable distributions. The foundation employs a small professional staff, though exact numbers are not disclosed. No additional investment vehicles or philanthropic arms beyond the foundation itself have been publicly identified. The foundation has historically disbursed over $1 billion in grants since inception, as reported by the Perot Museum's founding campaign materials. What distinguishes The Perot Foundation structurally is its deep integration with the Perot family's legacy institutions — notably the Perot Museum, which it helped endow, and the foundation's enduring focus on Texas-based community infrastructure rather than national or global philanthropy. This geographic and thematic concentration creates a tightly controlled grant-making operation that mirrors the family's business discipline.