Kinder Foundation

The Kinder Foundation is a Houston-based 501c3 nonprofit organization. It was established in 1997 by Rich and Nancy Kinder. Since its establishment, the Kinder Foundation has committed more than $200 million in grants and transformation gifts to Houston projects and distributed more than $90 million since 2007.

Major Projects

The Kinder Foundation supports transformational urban park projects in the Houston area, as well as supported various educational institutions. These projects include:

Discovery Green^[1]

The Discovery Green park project grew from an idea by Maconda Brown O’Connor and Nancy Kinder to create an urban park in downtown Houston. Several philanthropic foundations joined the public-private partnership with the City of Houston in 2004 to create the park which was completed in 2008. As the first board chair for the nonprofit Discovery Green Conservancy, Nancy Kinder led the $54 million private fundraising campaign, contributing $10 million from the Kinder Foundation, for the overall $125 million project. Discovery Green opened in 2008, hosts more than 400 free events a year, and has spurred $625 million in development around the park.

Rice University

Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research^[2] is dedicated to resolving issues that face some of the country’s largest urban centers, including Houston. In 2010, the Kinder Foundation provided a $15 million grant to support expanded research in Houston and in major cities around the world, and the institute was renamed in their honor.

Buffalo Bayou Park

The Buffalo Bayou Park^[3] – Shepherd to Sabine project is aimed at renovating a 160-acre, 2.3 mile stretch of Buffalo Bayou’s parkland inside Houston. The project will reintroduce native landscapes create wetlands, rambles, lawns and gardens. The project will also add trails, pedestrian bridges, lunar lighting, and a number of facilities and points of interest for visitor safety and enjoyment. The Kinder Foundation provided the initial $30 million grant to Buffalo Bayou Partnership to catalyze additional funding for the project, which is being conducted in partnership with the City of Houston and the Harris County Flood Control District.

Other Projects

The Kinder Foundation has provided grants for Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory of Houston; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Bush Center at Southern Methodist University; The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston; and The Texas Heart Institute’s Center for Coronary Artery Anomalies.

In 2014, the Kinder Foundation made possible the Kinder Forum on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri, a new program to support excellence in the teaching and study of American constitutional and democratic traditions. In 2015, the foundation made a new, endowed gift of $25 million to MU to provide permanent support for the renamed Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy.^[4]

Future Projects

Bayou Greenways

The Bayou Greenways 2020 project^[5] is focused on adding parkland and trails along nine Houston bayous. The $215 million project, which will be completed in 7 years, will create 1,500 acres of new parkland within Houston and connect 150 miles of trails along the bayous. The Kinder Foundation provided a $50 million grant to the Houston Parks Board for the project, which is the largest donation to Houston’s park system in the history of the city.

Founders

Richard Kinder is the CEO of Kinder Morgan, Inc., and he and Nancy Kinder signed the Giving Pledge in 2011, asserting their desire to donate 95 percent of their worth to charity at the time of their deaths. Rich and Nancy Kinder placed 50th on Forbes Biggest Givers in 2013 ^[6] and placed 28th on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Philanthropy 50,^[7] a chronicle of the nation’s biggest contributors to charitable organizations.

References