Houston, TX--Long one of America's largest cities, Houston has recently become one of its most prosperous, driven by growth in the oil, housing, and tech industries. This rising wealth has inspired tremendous philanthropy, changing the city's external look and its internal functions. According to Charity Navigator, Houston sits near the top among major U.S. metros in total philanthropic assets, percentage of income given to charity, and financial health of its largest charities. In 2015, the organization ranked Houston number one, just ahead of San Diego, in overall philanthropic culture.
During visits there in late 2015 and March of 2016, I saw firsthand what this money has built, and interviewed officials within some of Houston's leading charitable organizations. Here were the most interesting examples:
The Houston Endowment
This was founded in 1937 by local developer Jesse Jones and his wife Mary Gibbs Jones. Today the endowment is worth $1.7 billion, and spends 5% of funds--or about $85 million--annually on Houston-area initiatives. These span the arts, education, the environment, health and human services. The initiative that president Ann Stern spoke most enthusiastically about, during an interview in her downtown office, were Houston's neighborhood health centers. These centers, which receive a combination of public and private funding, including from this charity, are meant to encourage people to seek preventative medical help at the clinical level, rather than in more expensive hospitals.
Episcopal Health Foundation
This Foundation began when the Episcopal Diocese of Texas sold St. Luke's hospital, in Houston, to the Catholic church. The Episcopal church then put that windfall into this endowment, where it is now largely used for the same purpose mentioned above--neighborhood health centers. Like Stern, EHF's CEO Elena Marks thinks the future of medical care lies in smaller, preventative "upstream" facilities like neighborhood clinics, rather than expensive "downstream" options like hospitals. Working out of downtown Houston, EHF funds these facilities in the metro area and throughout Texas.
The Texas Medical Center
Of course, larger medical facilities are important too, and nobody provides them quite like the Texas Medical Center. This is the world’s largest medical complex, combining 44 member institutions within a mini-city on Houston's south side. The center is not a philanthropy in itself, but a collection solely of non-profits that greatly rely on charity--and an awful lot of it. The M.D. Anderson cancer center, for example, recently raised $1.2 billion in a capital campaign, thanks to donors from Houston and other parts of Texas. The Texas Children's Hospital--the nation's largest pediatric hospital--has thrived on similar donations. And the philanthropy rolling into TMC doesn't just go towards hospitals; there are also research facilities tasked with inventing the medicines and technologies of tomorrow.
The Kinder Foundation
Founded in 2007 by oil industry billionaire Rich Kinder and his wife Nancy, this organization's goal, says the website, is "to support Greater Houston as a model city for economic opportunity and quality of life." It has granted $260 million towards this goal, funding initiatives for health, education, social services and even a popular Houston-area survey conducted by Rice University. But the Kinders have particularly staked out their claim by donating to grand-scale park projects, including Buffalo Bayou Park, Discovery Green, and the Bayou Greenways 2020 initiative. As I noted in November, these recent major greenspace additions could be instrumental in reversing Houston's reputation as a sprawling mass of concrete.
The Laura and John Arnold Foundation
LJAF was founded in 2008 by Laura Arnold, a former oil company executive, and her investor husband John. Although it funds nationwide initiatives, the foundation is based in west Houston, and focuses on many city issues. LJAF has donated nearly $500 million in grants, having placed a special emphasis on education reform, including the growth and further innovation of charter schools.
The Houston Rodeo
The rodeo is likely Houston's most bottom-up philanthropic story. It may seem like a giant entertainment extravaganza, and after attending this March, I can assure readers that it is. For 20 days, the rodeo engulfs Houston's NRG Stadium and Park with concerts, carnivals, livestock shows, and grown men getting flung from bulls. It attracts around 2.5 million visitors annually, giving it the appearance of a cash cow.
But the rodeo is actually a philanthropic endeavor. It is run mostly through the efforts of 32,000 volunteers, and proceeds go towards educational grants, ranging from charter schools to literacy programs to agricultural studies. Since 1932, it has raised more than $400 million.
Of course, this by no means summarizes all the charitable giving in Houston. Other notable philanthropists include oil industry people like Anthony Petrello and Lester Smith, and titans from other trades. But the above-mentioned organizations alone give a sense of how wealth and philanthropy are changing Houston--there are literally billions of dollars flooding into the city for arts, education, health, criminal justice, social services, infrastructure, public amenities, and seemingly every other aspect of life. This money is often granted to organizations or entrepreneurs pursuing unique reforms, instilling a culture of innovation throughout the city. Indeed, such innovation, said Stern, is perhaps the biggest advantage of philanthropy.
“Philanthropy sits in a very special place, because we’re not dealing with day-to-day operations,” said the Houston Endowment president, “we have risk capital.”
What she meant was that government bureaucracies are often unable to blaze trails, because of their limited budgets and tight regulatory mandates. But philanthropic organizations can scout new ideas, and provide seed money for them, giving them the potential to become mainstream. Thanks to broader economic growth, this philanthropic mission is occurring at a large scale in Houston.
