The Frazier Family Foundation was created in 2018 with the mission of empowering young innovators and creators in our Coastal Bend community through grants, scholarships and partnerships. Since then, the Foundation has expanded its reach to include environmental awareness and conservation; education and the arts; and child protection and welfare, in addition to offering new avenues to college and entrepreneurship.
Lynn Frazier and his sons — Garrett and Derrick — started the foundation “to foster on-ramps of excellence for future generations” by offering philanthropic support to qualified nonprofit organizations across a nine-county area: Aransas, Bee, Brooks, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kleberg, Nueces, Refugio and San Patricio counties.
Garrett Frazier said his family wanted to find new opportunities to give back to the Coastal Bend after enjoying resounding business success with Magnum Oil Tools International, a market-leading downhole technology provider serving the global oil and gas industry.
“I do feel like there’s a lot of opportunity for those looking to come in or come back home, people who have had success elsewhere and want to bring new ideas back with them.”
“There is a lot of opportunity for success here in the Coastal Bend, both in business and for the future of our young people,” Frazier said. “With Magnum, we were bold and decisive, and did things no one else had done. With the foundation, we look to support people who are creative and want to push the status quo to come up with innovative new ideas.
“It’s easy to have a global view on what you want to do for the world, but I think unless you can really impact your local community, who are you to think you can change the world? That’s why it’s important for us to help empower the Coastal Bend.”
The diversity in the foundation’s giving and partnerships can be seen in some of its most recent assistance: supporting Majesty Outdoors, a nonprofit that offers mentoring for children without father figures through hunting and fishing; Tennis Success, which aims to provide skills to children on and off the court that they will carry past graduation; and the Art Museum of South Texas, whose Youth Arts Education programs foster creativity for children in the community.
In addition, the foundation has partnered with the Harte Research Institute through financial support as well as helping out on the water.
“We worked with the Sportfish Center and did field work with them tagging amberjacks,” said Garrett, an avid angler. “We also found a massive grouper hole and they had never tagged any, so we did some of that, too. What they’re doing is next-level and ties into our mission of conservation. The opportunities for science majors and those wanting to get into fisheries and conservation fields are endless.”
Frazier said the future is bright for Corpus Christi and the Coastal Bend, namely due to the people who call the area home.
“Many people graduate and leave as soon as they can, which probably happens in many places,” he said. “I do feel like there’s a lot of opportunity for those looking to come in or come back home, people who have had success elsewhere and want to bring new ideas back with them. It goes back to having big ideas like we had with Magnum, and we like to support those endeavors.”
