Establishment of philanthropic foundations
Mellon established the Old Dominion Foundation in 1941 and the Bollingen Foundation in 1945 to support advancement and learning of the humanities and liberal education. The Bollingen Foundation published more than 100 books before it closed in 1969, when the assets of the Old Dominion Foundation were merged into those of his sister Ailsa's Avalon Foundation. The combined organization was renamed The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in honor of their father.
Paul Mellon's foremost philanthropic interest was his alma mater, Yale University, where his gifts extended far beyond the Yale Center for British Art.
His second major gift was funding for two new undergraduate residential colleges: Ezra Stiles College and Morse College. Designed by Eero Saarinen, these colleges, along with the Kahn-designed British Art Center, demonstrated Mellon's effort to bring modern architecture to Yale. The additional undergraduate housing helped Yale add women to its student body in 1969.
Mellon endowed the masterships and deanships of each of Yale's 12 residential colleges. He created the Mellon Senior Forum program, which provides a weekly meal for seniors in each of the residential colleges where they can share progress on their senior essays and projects with one another.
Mellon provided the funding to create the Directed Studies program of intense freshman-year focus on the humanities. He supported the undergraduate theater studies program, and endowed named professorships in schools throughout the university, particularly in the humanities.
Paul and Bunny Mellon built a new sanctuary for Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville, Virginia (1951–1960). The building was inspired by French churches of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Mellon gave money to causes that advanced the preservation of horses, including the United States Jockey Club's Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. This organization gives grants to research projects intended to increase the safety, welfare, longevity and improvement of life for racehorses.
He donated the $1 million bonus that Sea Hero won in the Chrysler Triple Crown Challenge to the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. Furthermore, he requested that double that amount be raised in response to his donation. That goal was met during the 1995–1996 fiscal year. Upon his death, he left yet another $2.5 million to the Foundation's endowment.
In 1999, Paul Mellon bequeathed $8 million to the University of Cambridge in England for the Fitzwilliam Museum. He agreed that £1 million of that sum could be allocated to the museum's courtyard development and in his will gave $12.5 million to re-light the museum's galleries and renovate the courtyard. The money was added to the Paul Mellon Fund, a trust fund whose income is used for education, exhibitions and publications.
He also helped to buy the 28,625 acres (115.8 km2) Cape Hatteras National Seashore and the 1,500 acres (610 ha) Sky Meadows State Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where he used to go to look at the stars.
He was also a major benefactor of Clare College and Clare Hall, both in Cambridge, England. Indeed, Clare Hall, founded 1966, gains much from his benefaction; his generous bequest serves the intellectual needs of the graduate college members. The Mellon Fellowship is another example of his generosity, permitting the reciprocal exchange of two students from Yale and two from Clare College for graduate study in each other's institutions.
Mellon helped to arrange the merger of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, founded by his father Andrew W. Mellon and uncle Richard B. Mellon, with Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1967 to create Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He subsequently donated money to the school.
