The Urban Institute is funded primarily by foundations, corporate philanthropies, and public agencies at all government levels. We also receive support from nonprofits, universities, and individuals. Much of our funding is awarded per project or program. A portion of earnings from our endowment also supports a small part of our annual budget, allowing Urban to deepen our research and data science capacity, strengthen organizational productivity, seed new initiatives, and deliver fact-based insights, tools, and data to the hands of changemakers who are best placed to act.
Funding Principles
We are grateful for the generous support of numerous funders who make it possible for us to advance our mission. At all times, Urban Institute experts strive to be collaborative and operate with independence, integrity, equity, and inclusivity. These values and the following principles guide Urban experts’ engagements with our funders and reflect the standards we aim to uphold.
Consistency with mission
The pursuit of essential support should not divert Urban from our mission. Urban solicits and accepts funding only for activities that are consistent with our mission.
Public understanding and knowledge stewardship
Urban seeks to ensure that the knowledge generated through our work contributes to the well-being of people and communities. We therefore strive to widely share the findings, insights, evidence, and promising solutions identified through our research and expertise. While some projects are designed for specific partners and result in limited public dissemination, we work to translate their insights, methods, and lessons into broader understanding that can inform policy, practice, and future research. We believe responsible stewardship of evidence strengthens decision-making and advances our mission.
Independence from funders
No funder shall determine research findings or the insights and recommendations of our experts. Urban will not accept any support that implies or requires endorsement of a position or product. We welcome comment, correction, and substantive engagement from all informed parties to enhance the quality of our work, but the board and leadership of Urban will defend the independence of researchers and experts even if funders disagree with their findings or conclusions.
Intellectual property
Urban seeks to retain rights in intellectual property produced during and after the funding period. After a piece of funded work is complete, we strive to communicate the insights and conclusions of our research through other formats including essays, interactive features, data visualizations, or blog posts (subject to reasonable constraints such as to protect individual privacy or proprietary information). We provide funders with reproduction and distribution rights for research reports they have funded when we own the intellectual property.
Expectation of researchers
As an organization, Urban does not take positions on issues. However, researchers have autonomy to pursue new ideas, and they are empowered and supported to share their own evidence-based views and policy recommendations that have been shaped by their research and analysis. Urban researchers are expected to be objective and follow the evidence wherever it may lead.
Diversity of perspective
Urban strives to build teams with a diversity of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. We view this across many dimensions, including the range of academic disciplines and issue areas represented on teams, the variety of research and analytic methods used, the breadth of modes of inquiry followed, and the unique experiences and perspectives that each person brings. We are also comfortable when different Urban experts who are examining the same or related questions reach different conclusions, provided they are transparent about their methods and the work meets our standards of quality. We believe this not only spurs innovation, it is also critical to the relevance and excellence of the data and evidence Urban produces.
Disclosure of funding sources
Urban strives for transparency of our funding. Urban will consider granting anonymity to funders, subject to evaluation of the rationale and the best interests of Urban and the funder with regard to transparency, reputational risk, and the limits of the law. A grant of anonymity does not exempt donors or awards from review to ensure consistency with our principles. Where products or events are made possible by a particular funder, we seek to disclose the funding relationship in connection with that product or event along with standard language affirming our research independence. Each year, Urban publicly acknowledges the donors that support our research by listing funders in categories based on the amount of funding received for each year. Urban’s annual reports are available online.
Freedom to decline support
At our leadership’s discretion, Urban can at any time and for any reason reject or return support from a funder.
Protection of the Urban brand and reputation
Urban will guard the appropriate use of our name, logo, and reputation and ask that outside parties not use Urban’s brand or visual identity without advance permission for each specific use.
