Dear Rice community,
It is with deep gratitude and appreciation that I share very exciting news with you that will support the future of the university’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research and advance solutions to Houston’s biggest challenges.
A new $55 million grant from the Kinder Foundation announced today will empower the Kinder Institute for Urban Research for decades to come as it focuses on its bold vision for “prosperity for all” and service to the public, ensuring that everyone can contribute to Houston’s success and share in its opportunities. The grant includes $50 million restricted for the institute’s endowment and $5 million for immediate research and program needs to benefit the city.
This gift comes less than five years after the foundation’s landmark $50 million endowment grant to the institute in September 2022. The new grant is also in addition to the approximately $30 million given prior to 2022 by the Kinder Foundation to Rice on behalf of the Kinder Institute and its affiliates and to facilitate the building where it is housed. The foundation’s giving to the institute over the past two decades now surpasses $135 million.
Rice is profoundly grateful to the Kinder Foundation and its founders, Rich and Nancy Kinder, for its continued investment in the Kinder Institute. Through its visionary support, the foundation has helped make Rice a trusted source of expertise on the issues shaping Houston’s future. The institute’s work demonstrates the powerful role a university can play in strengthening the city it calls home, ensuring that Houston’s growth expands opportunity and prosperity for all.
Since its founding in 2010, the institute has had a measurable impact on our region, advancing research and insights of value to cities across the United States and world. Researchers have helped the city find sustainable solutions to a multi-billion-dollar pension liability, forged partnerships with the Houston Independent School District and other districts to improve educational outcomes, and built robust survey platforms, including the Greater Houston Community Panel, to capture the experiences and attitudes of Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, a region home to 1 in 5 Texans.
The institute focuses on the intersecting issues of housing, education, economic mobility, health and population. Research initiatives are housed under five research centers. The Kinder Institute is also a critical partner in Rice’s 10-year strategic plan, Momentous: Personalized Scale for Global Impact, which has a key goal to build thriving urban communities through research and programs.
Using a research-practice partnership model, the institute advances the public good by working hand in hand with government agencies and social services organizations that are positioned to solve critical challenges facing the nation’s fifth largest and most diverse metropolitan area. In this model, projects are jointly developed with long-term partners who contribute their insight and expertise. It serves as an exemplar for urban research across the world.
The Kinder Foundation’s support will also allow the institute to build on existing partnerships with organizations and government entities across the city and conduct research to improve outcomes, develop solutions and make systemic change.
Since its founding, the institute has become known for its research, data and policy analysis of critical issues, including housing, transportation and education. It’s also home to the long-running Kinder Houston Area Survey, which has documented significant changes in the way area residents perceive and understand Houston’s ongoing challenges and opportunities.
The institute has more than doubled the size of its staff over the past five years. Under Ruth Lopez Turley’s leadership since July 2022, the institute’s notable Houston research includes an in-depth study of Houston parks and greenspace in collaboration with the Kinder Foundation, the Jacob and Terese Hershey Foundation and the Cullen Foundation; several key reports assessing HISD classrooms, services and programs as part of the Equity Project, along with a comprehensive study of college and workforce outcomes of Houston-area high school graduates; and a multiyear, multilingual study revisiting the Asian American community in the Houston metro area, which grew in population by 53% from 2010 to 2020.
The Kinder Institute has done a remarkable job in advancing Houston as well as cities across the Sun Belt and beyond with its transformative work, and thanks to the Kinder Foundation’s extraordinarily generous support, they’re only going to grow in impact.
Please join me in congratulating Ruth and her team on their past, present and future success.
Best regards,
Reginald DesRoches
President, Rice University