The world’s largest publicly traded oil and gas company, along with its employees and others, spread some wealth to universities and colleges across the U.S. again, continuing its investment in education.

As part of the ExxonMobil Foundation’s Educational Matching Gift Program, more than $50 million was donated to more than 850 institutions in the U.S., the company said in a recent news release. The program, which matches donor pledges 3:1 up to $7,500, has awarded funds to colleges, universities and scholarship and college funds for more than 50 years.

To date, more than $630 million have been donated through the program.

“ExxonMobil’s employees are committed to investing in quality education,” Ben Soraci, president of the ExxonMobil Foundation, said in the release. “The ExxonMobil Foundation has a long history of supporting a range of efforts to improve education in the United States. We hope our contributions and the generous support of ExxonMobil’s employees will help create a stronger future for today’s students.”

The company’s foundation is composed of employees, retirees, directors and surviving spouses.

The list included:

  • $200,000 to six New Mexico schools;
  • $100,000 to five North Dakota schools;
  • $13.4 million to 78 Texas schools;
  • $2.7 million to 65 Pennsylvania schools;
  • $1.4 million to 34 Virginia schools;
  • $800,000 to 32 Ohio schools;
  • $1.4 million to 11 Oklahoma schools;
  • $1.2 million to 34 New Jersey schools;
  • $800,000 to eight Kansas schools;
  • $2.6 million to 21 Louisiana schools;
  • $3.2 million to 90 New York schools;
  • $800,000 to 12 Colorado schools;
  • $1 million to 40 California schools;
  • $1.6 million to 37 Illinois schools; and
  • $900,000 to 11 Alabama schools.

The program also awards grants to scholarship funds. The American Indian College Fund, Hispanic Scholarship Fund and the United Negro College Fund are among them.

Although the grants are unrestricted, institutions receiving the funds are encouraged to use some of money for math and science programs.

The donations were part of the foundation’s 2016 gift program, and it’s certainly great to see that these philanthropic arms are still outstretched. ExxonMobil said that $17.5 million were contributed from its employees, retirees, directors and surviving spouses. This amount was matched with $32.6 million in grants from the foundation.

Hopefully, their generosity will help nurture future engineers, data scientists and others needed for the oil and gas industry’s workforce.

Velda Addison can be reached at vaddison@hartenergy.com.