The Thanks-Giving Foundation

Fundraise

56% complete

$61,000 Goal



Our goal is $50,000...your gift will be doubled thanks to two generous supporters!

Overview
For over 50 years, Thanks-Giving Square has been a powerful reminder that unity begins in the heart of the city—and in the hearts of its people.

Located in the center of downtown Dallas, Thanks-Giving Square is both a beautiful landmark and a living idea...a place and a movement that brings people together across differences and inspires a better way to live together.

Through public events, youth programs, interfaith dialogues, community healing rituals, and daily moments of quiet reflection, we invite every visitor to step into a space that uplifts, inspires, and transforms.

This North Texas Giving Day, we welcome you—especially if you're giving for the first time—to be part of something enduring and essential. Your support fuels the vision of a Dallas where gratitude leads and connection grows.

More About Thanks-Giving Square
Founded in 1964 during a time of national division and local uncertainty, Thanks-Giving Square was born out of hope: the belief that we could build a better future by elevating the universal human value of gratitude.

Now, 61 years later, that mission is more relevant than ever. As our city continues to face deep challenges—poverty, disconnection, division—Thanks-Giving Square offers something rare: a civic sanctuary for reflection, reconnection, and renewal.

We welcome everyone—across all faiths, races, cultures, generations, and identities—to this inclusive space for stillness and growth. From the spiral of the chapel to the flow of the garden fountains, the Square is a call to pause, listen, and lead with love.

Thanks-Giving Square is more than a landmark—it’s a movement toward a more compassionate Dallas.

We believe in a city where people choose love over hate, generosity over fear, gratitude over isolation. We believe in you.

Our Needs: Bridge to Financial Independence

Our Needs: The Plan for Profound Community Impact

With your support on North Texas Giving Day, we’re shaping a bold future:

  • Renovating and enhancing Thanks-Giving Square to better serve all who visit
  • Creating a broader Thanks-Giving District—a civic centerpiece for renewal and connection
  • Expanding programs for youth, including sponsored field trips that inspire empathy and understanding
  • Hosting public gatherings for healing, celebration, and remembrance
  • Welcoming more Dallas residents and visitors to experience this sacred space
  • Elevating Thanks-Giving Square as a global symbol of gratitude and unity

We are building a Dallas that listens deeply, welcomes fully, and leads with heart.

We invite you to give—not just to a place, but to a vision. Join us. Help us carry the spirit of thanks forward, together.

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Giving Activity

Mission

Mission: Coming together on Common Ground, moving together to Higher Ground

Core Focus: Elevate Dallas as the City of Thanks-Giving, a community of diverse people that take action to express gratitude and replace hate with love. This community creates the change they want in the world.

Core Values: We are guided by our commitment to the values of:

Connection, Community and Engagement

Inclusion, Equity and Engagement

Goodwill, Kindness and Civility

Gratitude, Mindfulness and Intentionality

Beliefs: We believe in the power of three simple ideas to elevate Dallas:

Choose LOVE over HATE

Get Involved, Make a Difference

Practice Gratitude

The Work: Our work can be described as an undertaking of two important goals:

First, Coming Together on Common Ground - a convening of the community to negotiate differences and create understanding and appreciation of the diversity present among us.

Second, Moving Together to Higher Ground - an initiative to lead, inspire and elevate the community to a more morally and ethically perfected state of being.

Differentiation: The important work we do involves changing hearts, minds and souls to prepare and enable the community to come together in goodwill to take action to solve the problems we can't solve alone.

Short Definer: Thanks-Giving Square‚ a destination and movement where we come together to solve the problems we can't solve alone.

Brand Promise: Thanks-Giving Square transforms people through gratitude, love and action.

Beyond being a place, Thanks-Giving Square sits at the center of Dallas’ cultural life and Advocates for a Purposeful Approach to Civic Culture and a Profoundly Caring Community.

Becoming a Profoundly Caring Community…a new journey we can take together

1) Broaden the circle of care – We need to extend our care beyond family and friends to embrace the entire community and take an interest in improving the quality of life of all those therein.

2) Connect with civility – We need to know each other and build relationships based on mutual respect so that we are able to transcend disagreement with civility.

3) Embrace differences – We need to embrace a pluralistic culture rather than a dominant or blended culture and empower all among us to express his or her individuality.

4) Champion socioeconomic mobility – We need to heal the class and economic divide and adopt an ethos whereby every person within our community has a genuine opportunity and a viable pathway to thrive and flourish.

5) Celebrate virtue and goodwill – We need to nourish our shared moral and spiritual hunger and awaken a resurgence of goodness for our personal wellbeing and that of the community.

Needs

Greetings,

I’m Kyle Ogden, President & CEO of the Thanks-Giving Foundation, and I am reaching out to invite you to invest in the future of Thanks-Giving Square.

Thanks-Giving Square plays a unique role in Dallas. At its core, it is a shared sacred space in downtown where people of all beliefs and backgrounds come together—from common ground to higher ground. Each year, about 300,000 visitors come to the Square for reflection, connection and shared experience.

But it is more than a place. It is also an active movement—bringing people together through partnerships, gatherings and experiences that extend beyond The Square and into the community. In a time when communities often feel divided, we offer something increasingly rare: a place where people come together across differences and experience values like respect, civility, kindness and gratitude. Through interfaith initiatives, civic conversations and year-round programming, people encounter these values in real ways—and carry them into everyday life. Because when those values are lived out, they shape a more connected and thriving city. That's what makes Thanks-Giving Square meaningful. Thanks-Giving Square is not just a place people visit—it's a place, and a movement, that helps shape how our city lives together.

But we are facing a challenge. In 1973, The Thanks-Giving Foundation and the City of Dallas entered into a 75-year agreement. The city wanted to purchase the land beneath The Square to enable the construction of the Bullington Truck Terminal, and to lease a custom-built Pedestrian Tunnel area for a term of 75 years. This was at a time when city leaders were knitting together an underground network to allow downtowners to move from building-to-building while being insulated from the elements. The Agreement called for an Annual Payment of $65,000, adjusted every three years for changes in the Cost-of-Living index. The April 2025 payment was just shy of $500,000. Until April 2026, the city has made this payment each year since inception, and the Foundation relied on this payment to sustain its operations.

On November 19, 2025, the City of Dallas gave notice that their 2026 budget did not provide for the payment of the contracted Annual Payment. The notice went on to recite a rarely used provision in the State of Texas Constitution dealing with long-term obligations of Texas cities, which in some circumstances, nullifies certain multi-year contracts. The November 19 letter goes on to reference the City Council’s determination that continued funding for this obligation is not fiscally justified based on current municipal priorities and the lack of public benefit being derived by the City.

We vehemently disagree with the city’s assessment of both the legitimacy of the Agreement and their assertion of a lack of public benefit. Over the course of the last several months, we have met a number of times with city staff and council members and have offered to compromise in an attempt to amicably resolve our differences. To date, we have not prevailed.

We find ourselves in a perilous place financially. Fortunately, Ron and Rebecca Gafford, together with our friends at Communities Foundation of Texas, have made a substantial pledge to match donations from the community! This presents a unique opportunity to invest in Thanks-Giving Square at a time when the need is great and the impact is doubled! I hope you will consider making a gift.

In closing, it would be an honor to include you as part of the Thanks-Giving community.

With much gratitude,

Kyle Ogden

President & CEO

The Thanks-Giving Foundation

kogden@thanksgiving.org

214.755.1900

To make a gift online, please visit https://www.thanksgiving.org/donate

To make a gift by check, please send to:

The Thanks-Giving Foundation

Thanks-Giving Square

1627 Pacific Ave.

Dallas, TX 75201

Organization Data

Summary

Organization name

The Thanks-Giving Foundation

Tax id (EIN)

75-6036406

Causes

Community Improvement

Operating Budget

$500,000 - $999,999

Counties Served

Collin, Dallas

BIPOC Leadership

Neither/None

Address

1627 Pacific Ave
Dallas, TX 75201

Phone

214-969-1977

Email

kogden@thanksgiving.org

Website

http://www.thanksgiving.org