$10 million gift from Gene and Jerry Jones brings a family’s giving home
Gene and Jerry Jones have given to many places over the years, and their latest gift goes to the state where their story began.
Recently in North Little Rock, standing beside President Bill Clinton at the Little Rock Touchdown Club, Jerry Jones announced a $10 million gift from the Gene and Jerry Jones Family to the Clinton Foundation.
The gift will help modernize the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock and expand educational opportunities through the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas.
“It is one of my greatest honors to stand next to President Clinton and be able to make this donation with my wife, Gene, and our family,” Jones said.
He described Arkansas, Little Rock, North Little Rock and the University of Arkansas as “the landscape and foundation that formed and helped shape our lives and success.”
The gift comes at a turning point for the Center. It is undergoing its first major renovation in more than 20 years, led by architect Jeanne Gang and Studio Gang.
Plans include a renovated Clinton-Gore Administration gallery, a new gallery and archive for Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, a new home for the Clinton School of Public Service and the Foundation’s Little Rock offices, and a redesign of the 50-acre Clinton Presidential Park along the Arkansas River.
The Jones gift is aimed at the Center’s education work: programs for students of all ages, teacher resources, civic learning, and the Clinton School, which offers the nation’s first Master of Public Service degree.
Since opening in 2004, the Center has welcomed more than 5.5 million visitors, hosted 525,000 students and educators free of charge, and graduated more than 700 Clinton School students.
For the Joneses, this gift continues a long relationship with Arkansas rather than starting a new one. Jerry Jones played on the Razorbacks’ undefeated 1964 national championship team. In 2015 the couple gave $10.65 million to the University of Arkansas, which helped build the Jerry and Gene Jones Family Student-Athlete Success Center, a space for academics and dining for student athletes.
He linked the two gifts himself: the chance to “combine my long-standing love and support for the University of Arkansas and Razorback athletics” with the Clinton Center’s mission was, he said, “something I personally cherish.”
Outside Arkansas, the family’s giving has followed a steady pattern of children, healing, service and shared public spaces. Their best-known partnership is with The Salvation Army. Since 1997, the Cowboys’ Thanksgiving Day halftime show has launched the national Red Kettle Campaign on donated network airtime, a tradition credited with helping raise more than $3.67 billion.
That partnership has also produced the Gene and Jerry Jones Family Center for Children in Irving, which opened in 1998, and the Gene and Jerry Jones Family North Texas Youth Education Town in Arlington. In 2025 The Salvation Army gave Gene, Jerry and their daughter Charlotte Jones its highest honor for advisory board members.
The family has also given to causes with personal meaning. Their $7.5 million lead gift created the American Cancer Society Gene and Jerry Jones Family Hope Lodge in Dallas, which offers cancer patients and caregivers free lodging during treatment.
In 2021, they gave $20 million to the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation and co-chaired its national campaign.
The museum opened in Arlington in 2025, with Charlotte serving as board chair. Arlington, home of AT&T Stadium, also benefits from a $16.5 million family pledge to youth organizations that runs through 2041.
Gene Jones has led the family’s arts work.
She founded the Dallas Cowboys Art Collection, which now has 98 works by 65 artists, and thousands of Arlington students tour it each year.
In 2017, she and Jerry committed $5 million, matched by The Meadows Foundation, to create the Gene and Jerry Jones Grand Atrium and Plaza at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts.
More recently, the family joined Dallas investors in bringing GreenLight Fund to the city.
Altogether, the family’s publicly documented gifts and pledges come to roughly $70 million, and the Red Kettle partnership has helped raise billions more.
The Clinton Center gift fits the pattern. It funds education, a public place built to last, and young people learning to serve in the state that first shaped the family.
“This is a remarkably heartfelt moment,” Jerry Jones said, and the family’s record helps explain why.