Philanthropy
Enhancing quality of life
Vital social services and opportunities to enjoy arts, culture and nature help make our communities vibrant. Devon’s investments in community enrichment align with our value to make a positive and sustainable impact.
Devon is a leading contributor to nonprofit organizations in our operating communities.
Arts, culture and nature
We’re committed to supporting the visual and performing arts that help make our hometown of Oklahoma City a lively and appealing place to live, work and play. Devon funds a variety of local arts and culture organizations, including the Oklahoma City Ballet, Arts Council of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, and Lyric Theater. We also hold an annual fundraising campaign for Allied Arts to support more than 40 local arts organizations.
We participate in the annual National Public Lands Day in New Mexico, a project to repair and restore public recreation areas, and Ducks Unlimited’s Southern Prairies and Playas initiative for sustainable water resources and healthy wetland habitats in southeast New Mexico. Playas can be an important part of a sustainable approach to securing water for communities, as well as a primary habitat for many wildlife species. Devon employees in the Permian Basin support on-the-ground conservation projects focused on playa restoration, including engineering and design, project administration and other activities involved in delivering conservation work.
In 2022, we marked our 15th year contributing funding and volunteers for the Wyoming Conservation Corps (WCC) and its programs to improve public lands in the state. Devon is also a long-time supporter of The Oklahoma Nature Conservancy and its focus on sharing the love of nature and conservation throughout the state. We contribute to its ground stewardship activities, including controlled burning for range management, invasive species control and scientific research. Devon’s donations help stand up operations at the newest Blue River preserve, Oka’ Yanahli, which encompasses 3,600 acres of native prairie and two miles of river.
Inclusion and Equity Grants
We want to make a real difference in people’s lives, and we listen to stakeholders to find the most effective programs to meet community needs. We created the Devon Inclusion and Equity Grants to put our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) beliefs into action with community organizations we’d never worked with before. In 2021, we awarded $100,000 to our first nine new partner organizations in Oklahoma City, identified with the help of our employee-led DEI Team.
In 2022, we added 11 new, diverse partners in Oklahoma City and continued supporting several 2021 grant recipients. We also made our first grants to four organizations in the Delaware Basin. Our Inclusion and Equity Grants totaled $268,000 in 2022. To hold ourselves accountable for expanding the reach of our DEI charitable programming, we set and met a 2022 company scorecard goal to cultivate relationships with a number of DEI-focused organizations. In 2023, we’ll make grants in all of our operating areas.
Oklahoma City organizations that were new to our grant program in 2022 are:
Calle Dos Cinco in Historic Capitol Hill ($5,000) to help fund a year of volunteer-led community events like Fiestas de las Americas and OKCine Latino Film Festival aimed at revitalizing the growing Latino community in Capitol Hill. The events showcase local artists and promote cultural pride and belonging in the Latino community.
Central Oklahoma American Indian Health Council ($10,000) to assist in providing hearing aids to adult and pediatric patients and reducing the needs for patients to travel to the clinic.
Cristo Rey Oklahoma City Catholic High School ($62,500) for a work-study program at Devon’s offices for students with limited resources.
Freedom City ($5,000) for core programs at F.D. Moon Middle School, including Freedom Girls for career exploration and life skills, a caregiver support group and in-school mentoring.
Girl Scouts of Western Oklahoma ($7,500) to help create a DEI council of local scouts, fund staff resources and expand DEI training opportunities.
India Association of Oklahoma ($5,000) to help host the India Food & Arts Festival highlighting Indian arts, crafts, music, dance and cuisine, free of charge to Oklahomans.
Latino Community Development Agency ($12,500) to relaunch the Latino Leadership Club Program and its leadership and education opportunities for local Latino students.
Northeast Oklahoma City Renaissance ($5,000) for the annual oNE OKC street festival to represent the vision of Northeast Oklahoma City’s future and engage the community.
Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice ($5,000) for its OKC Youth Leadership Forum to engage high school students in powerful conversations about race relations in Oklahoma and help them advocate for positive change.
Servants Basketball Club to help area minority youth travelling for the organization’s programs by providing a vehicle.
StitchCrew ($20,000) to support the launch of a comprehensive Business Growth Program to help minority-led women business owners reach scale.
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Devon is making Inclusion and Equity Grants to the following Oklahoma City organizations for the second consecutive year:
Foundation for OKC Public Schools (OKCPS) ($25,000) for financial and academic support for paraprofessionals of color already working in OKCPS to finish college and earn their teaching certification, without any debt. Upon successful completion of the program, they commit to serve as full-time teachers in OKCPS for three years.
Oklahoma City Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Parade ($500) for participation fees.
Restore OKC ($20,000) to assist with funding The Market at EastPoint, a community-led grocery store in Northeast Oklahoma City. Restore OKC pays a third party to manage the store, but all jobs inside the store will be filled by Restore Jobs, which provides jobs to single mothers.
Urban League ($20,000) to support the social justice program, part of its efforts to promote equality and equity for African Americans.
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We’re proud to make our first Inclusion and Equity Grants in the Delaware Basin to these organizations:
Your Safe Space ($10,000) to support a mentoring program in Hobbs, New Mexico, for young boys without a male figure in their home.
Changing Lives Coalition ($2,500) for an after-school program providing meals, creative outlets, mentoring and other services for 15 students in sixth through ninth grade in Artesia, New Mexico.
Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation ($5,000) to fund new STEM programming for up to 25 at-risk youth in Carlsbad, New Mexico, including hiring retired teachers and subject matter experts to provide hands-on learning opportunities.
MyPower ($7,500) to support mentoring circles for roughly 200 fifth-grade girls in Lea County, New Mexico, to empower them to successfully navigate their teen years.