The Lyda Hill Foundation (or Lyda Hill Philanthropies) is a private foundation that awards grants to scientific research ventures and community foundations in Texas and Colorado. Its founder, entrepreneur Lyda Hill, supports the foundation with “the entirety of her estate.” Hill’s foundation states that she has “a fervent belief that “science is the answer” to many of life’s most challenging issues” and hence has committed her wealth to scientific research, environmentalism, and health care, among other issues. ^{1 2}

Background

Lyda Hill is a career entrepreneur and philanthropist based in Dallas, Texas. In 1967, she started her career by founding a travel agency known as Hill World Travel. It became the largest in Dallas and one of the most lucrative travel agencies in the country when she sold it in 1982. Around that time, she became involved with the board of a conservation group overseeing the Seven Falls waterfalls in Colorado Springs, serving as its president. She went on to develop the Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Center in Colorado Springs and the Fort Worth Stockyards in Texas, turning the latter into a profitable tourist district. ³

After battling breast cancer, Lyda Hill began to get involved with scientific philanthropy by funding the creation of two medical research centers, the Oklahoma Breast Care Center and Remeditex Ventures. ⁴

Lyda Hill has given grants to numerous scientific programs herself, without going through the Lyda Hill Foundation, including $50 million to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, $25 million to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center to establish the Lyda Hill Department of Bioinformatics, and a variety of environmental and marine conservation efforts overseen by The Nature Conservancy and Pew Charitable Trusts. ⁵

Other beneficiaries of Lyda Hill’s philanthropic giving include the Visiting Nurses Association, World Presidents’ Organization, the Crystal Charity Ball, the Junior League of Dallas, Easterseals, the Hockaday School, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, BrainHealth, and the American Heart Association. ⁶

Lyda Hill Foundation has received recognition for its contributions from several abortion access advocates and environmentalist left-of-center organizations, such as Planned Parenthood of North Texas, the Nature Conservancy, and the Women’s Center. ⁷

Funding

In 2019, Lyda Hill Foundation donated $3 million to the University of Washington Foundation’s Audacious Project, which seeks to launch the “protein design revolution.” ⁸ The Audacious Project’s self-professed five main goals are to build better vaccines for pathogens, expand beyond “nature’s alphabet” of the 20 amino acids, create better protein containers for drug deliveries, design protein systems that can identify cancer cells, and develop nanomaterials for use in solar energy capture and nanofabrication. ⁹

The Project was launched in April 2018 and is operated in collaboration with the nonprofit TED and the Bridgespan Group. Participant groups include the Skoll Foundation, Virgin Unite, and the Dalio Foundation, and major donors include the John and Laura Arnold Foundation, Steve and Genevieve Jurvetson, Chris Larsen and Lyna Lam, Miguel McKelvey, the Clara Wu and Joe Tsai Foundation, the Wyss Foundation, and “several anonymous donors.” ¹⁰

Lyda Hill Foundation also gave $2,500 to Philanthropy Southwest, an association of grantmakers in the southwest United States that fund regional community foundations and private foundations. ^{11 12}

In 2018, Lyda Hill Foundation had given $1,000,000 to the Audacious Project. In 2017, the Foundation gave $25,000 to the George W. Bush Foundation to “support global health, education policy, [and] economic growth.” ¹⁴

Leadership

Lyda Hill is the vice president and director of the organization, according to tax filings. ¹⁵ In 2010, Lyda Hill became a member of the Giving Pledge, a commitment created by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett for wealthy philanthropists to promise a majority of their fortunes to charitable causes. ¹⁶

Others listed as co-directors include Mary Jalonick and Foundation president Nicole Small. ¹⁷

1. “Our Founder.” Lyda Hill Philanthropies. Accessed September 16, 2021. https://www.lydahillphilanthropies.org/about-our-founder/.
2. “Our Organization.” Lyda Hill Philanthropies. Accessed September 16, 2021. https://www.lydahillphilanthropies.org/about-our-founder/.
3. “Our Founder.” Lyda Hill Philanthropies. Accessed September 16, 2021. https://www.lydahillphilanthropies.org/about-our-founder/.
4. “Our Founder.” Lyda Hill Philanthropies. Accessed September 16, 2021. https://www.lydahillphilanthropies.org/about-our-founder/.
5. “Our Founder.” Lyda Hill Philanthropies. Accessed September 16, 2021. https://www.lydahillphilanthropies.org/about-our-founder/.
6. “Our Founder.” Lyda Hill Philanthropies. Accessed September 16, 2021. https://www.lydahillphilanthropies.org/about-our-founder/.
7. “Our Founder.” Lyda Hill Philanthropies. Accessed September 16, 2021. https://www.lydahillphilanthropies.org/about-our-founder/.
8. Lyda Hill Foundation. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax. Form 990-PF, 2019. Part XV, Line 3.
9. “Audacious Project.” Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington. Accessed September 16, 2021. https://www.ipd.uw.edu/audacious/.
10. “Audacious Project.” Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington. Accessed September 16, 2021. https://www.ipd.uw.edu/audacious/.
11. “What We Do.” Philanthropy Southwest, June 17, 2021. https://www.philanthropysouthwest.org/what-we-do.
12. Lyda Hill Foundation. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax. Form 990-PF, 2019. Part XV, Line 3.
14. Lyda Hill Foundation. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax. Form 990-PF, 2018. Part XV, Line 3. ¹³ Lyda Hill Foundation. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax. Form 990-PF, 2018. Part XV, Line 3.
15. Lyda Hill Foundation. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax. Form 990-PF, 2019. Part XV, Line 3.
16. “Our Founder.” Lyda Hill Philanthropies. Accessed September 16, 2021. https://www.lydahillphilanthropies.org/about-our-founder/.
17. Lyda Hill Foundation. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax. Form 990-PF, 2019. Part XV, Line 3.