Singer Leon Bridges, ex-TCU coach Gary Patterson take charity partnership to next level

Former TCU football coach Gary Patterson and Grammy Award-winning recording artist Leon Bridges teamed up in 2020 to form The Big Good, a joint charity to help North Texas children and families.

Now, the co-founders are partnering with The Rainwater Charitable Foundation, which is committing $500,000 to help The Big Good grow its donor base.

The Big Good has three local non-profit partners as beneficiaries: The Tarrant To & Through Partnership (T3), United Community Centers and UpSpire. The organizations focus on solving homelessness issues by eliminating employment barriers, creating opportunities for higher education and enhancing education for teenagers.

Bridges and Patterson hosted a private reception Tuesday evening to announce the Rainwater partnership to supporters.

The Fort Worth-based Rainwater Charitable Foundation’s mission is to provide children with high-quality education that can transform the future trajectories of their lives. The foundation has previously worked toward its goal by investing in local nonprofits geared towards helping students and families who are most in need.

Investor Richard E. Rainwater, who early in his career managed the Bass family portfolio, founded the private foundation in 1991. He died in 2015.

In April 2022, The Big Good hosted its first annual fundraiser with community leaders, athletes and philanthropists, including tennis star Andy Roddick and actor Eric Nelsen. It raised more than $1 million last year.

From the 2022 grants, T3 expanded into more Fort Worth schools, United Community Centers developed a child counseling program and Upspire added more than 50 employment opportunities to its program.

The Big Good is seeking new donors across Fort Worth and outside the North Texas area to help achieve its goals. Bridges and Patterson came together after seeing an opportunity to combine their different platforms and unique personalities for Fort Worth’s good.

“This grant from Rainwater is allowing us to reach more people than ever before,” said Kelsey Patterson, partner of the Gary Patterson foundation and the coach’s wife. “We are growing, so to have this partnership and this support is invaluable to what we are trying to do in the community. Through this partnership, we hope to maximize people’s attention of charitable giving towards the causes they care about in the Fort Worth community.”

Bridges, 33, is a Fort Worth native who has been a soul singer, songwriter and record producer since 2014. His first single on his Grammy-nominated debut album in 2015 was “Coming Home.” His 2019 song “Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand” won a Grammy for best traditional R&B performance.

Patterson, who was TCU’s all-time winningest coach and who elevated the Horned Frogs to national prominence, left TCU after the 2021 season.