Who We Are
The Thanks-Giving Foundation is the owner and operator of Thanks-Giving Square in downtown Dallas. The Foundation strives to make North Texas a better place to live, work, and play by educating, inspiring, and moving its people toward becoming the City of Thanks-Giving. Thanks-Giving Foundation believes individuals from all backgrounds, cultures, and religions have the power to overcome differences and join together to strengthen communities, heal divisions, and promote compromise.
Our Purpose
“Coming together on Common Ground, moving together to Higher Ground”
Our purpose is to bring together diverse people on the common ground of gratitude through our places, ideas, and actions. We provide resources and initiatives that encourage individuals from all walks of life to embrace gratitude, virtue, and goodwill. We believe that enhancing the presence and practice of gratitude in people’s daily lives can foster mutual understanding that guides us all to a united place of harmony with others, our community, and ourselves.
To live a life of gratitude is to live a life of virtue. We believe people with a grateful spirit who aspire to live a virtuous life and demonstrate goodwill will find happiness and contentment, no matter where they’re from or where their journey takes them. By living a virtuous life of gratitude and goodwill, we believe individuals from all backgrounds, cultures, and religions have the power to overcome differences and join together to strengthen communities, heal divisions, and promote compromise.
We believe in the power of three simple ideas:
Love people
Practice gratitude
Make a lasting difference
Our Story
The story of Thanks-Giving Square is one of reclamation and celebration.
In 1964, four businessmen convened to bring a new vision of Dallas to life. The city was still reeling from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Despite the reputation the city had garnered, everyone knew that Dallas had much more to offer and much to be thankful for.
Joe O. Neuhoff, Julius Schepps, John M. Stemmons, and Peter P. Stewart founded the Thanks-Giving Foundation, a new kind of organization that would highlight and celebrate the worldly aspirations, economic accomplishments, and enduring hearts of the citizens of Dallas.
The Thanks-Giving Foundation was chartered to create a public space in the heart of the city dedicated in gratitude to God and to the “most ancient and enduring of American traditions” – giving thanks.
The four men envisioned an urban oasis that would signify and celebrate all that makes the city and its citizens great. Peter Stewart said it would be a “shrine to the future,” and half a century later, it has lived up to that vision.
Citizens and donors rallied to bring Thanks-Giving Square to life. The founders worked with the city to acquire land in 1968, and construction began in 1973. The project was designated one of the region’s American Revolution Bicentennial Projects, and the Chapel of Thanksgiving and Bell Tower were dedicated on Thanksgiving Day, 1976, the 200-year anniversary of the founding of the United States.
The remainder of the Square opened to the public in 1977, on the anniversary of General George Washington’s proclamation establishing the first national Day of Thanksgiving on request of the Continental Congress.
The Square is a living tribute to the practice of gratitude. Gratitude has been recognized as a universal human value that can be found in cultures and religious traditions around the world. Thanks-Giving Square has become a place of refuge for every visitor – regardless of background, tradition, culture, or religion – to practice gratitude and join with neighbors in celebrating the city’s rich history of progress, prosperity, and exceptional people.
What We Do — Our Signature Programs
The Thanks-Giving Foundation hosts four signature programs each year designed to bring the community together to break down barriers and celebrate our commonalities. These special events draw thousands to the Square and to special event venues as a way of carrying out our mission to foster love, practice gratitude, and make a difference for Dallas.
National Day of Prayer
Kindness Week
Interfaith Thanks-Giving
Tuba Christmas
Our Team
The Thanks-Giving Foundation is overseen by a committed and passionate team of citizens who are honoring the vision of our founders and carrying that vision into a new era.
Thanks-Giving Square sits at the center of Dallas’ cultural life, serves as a civic and cultural backbone, and Advocates for a Purposeful Approach to a Profoundly Caring Community. We endeavor to bend our culture toward overcoming five big social challenges…
1) Broaden the circle of care – We need to extend our circle of 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 disagreements 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.
The work involves convening conversations that matter and connecting people with their better selves, with others and with the greater community through stories and experiences. We encourage people to embrace a better way, a higher way.
Kyle Ogden
President & CEO
214-969-1977
