Lilly Endowment
/OVERVIEW: The Lilly Endowment is a major endowed foundation that makes grants in the areas of education, community development, arts and culture, disaster relief, veterans’ affairs, and Christian causes, particularly pastoral leadership and Christian colleges and universities.
IP TAKE: The Lilly Endowment, which describes itself as “conservatively progressive,” is the second-largest endowed foundation in the U.S., surpassed only by the Gates Foundation. In a recent exploration of Lilly’s good fortunes - thanks in large part to Eli Lilly stock prices - Inside Philanthropy’s Michael Kavate wrote, “this 85-year-old institution’s windfall of the past decade is … a rare example of what it looks like when a legacy foundation grows as fast as its younger, fast-moving peers.” Based in Indiana, Lilly has always been a major regional grantmaker while also developing national grantmaking programs.
This is a transparent, approachable funder that accepts two-page letters of inquiry by mail at any time and responds in writing to each of the thousands it receives every year. The Lilly Endowment also likes to, on occasion, support the “creation and launching of new charitable organizations when such an approach is compelling and the best way to accomplish an important aim.” The Endowment has remained fairly consistent in terms of the causes it supports, including a broad range of topic areas, from housing to youth programs, within the state of Indiana.
PROFILE: The Lilly Endowment traces its roots back to 1937, when J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons, J.K. Jr. and Eli, established it with stock from their pharmaceutical business. Although the endowment is now independent of its parent drug company and the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, Eli Lilly stock is still its main source of revenue. This funder aims to “help individuals reach their full potential, families to thrive and communities to flourish through grants to a range of charitable organizations.” Its funding initiatives are education and youth, religion and community development.
Grants for Education and Religion
The Lilly Endowment’s grants for education and youth work towards increasing “educational attainment and meaningful economic opportunities for the people of Indiana and build the state’s intellectual capital.” The Endowment also, on an invitational basis, invests in efforts to “strengthen higher education access and success for African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans across the United States.” Many of the Endowment’s education grants also invest in Indiana-based youth programs that “help all young people reach their full potential.” Education funding may be divided into early childhood education, K-12 and higher education funding.
Some of this funder’s education giving intersects with its significant funding for Christian religious institutions.
Grants for Early Childhood Education
The Lilly Endowment names Indiana early childhood education and services as a main focus of its education and youth funding program.
Areas of interest include increasing the accessibility of high-quality programs for low-income and disadvantaged families, program development and teacher education.
The endowment recently made a $20 million commitment to Early Learning Indiana, which helps early learning centers throughout the state improve and expand their programming.
Other past ECE grantees include the United Way of Central Indiana and the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis, as well as a partnership with Indiana Department of Education for $85 million to support early literacy.
Grants for K-12 Education
Lilly’s Indiana K-12 education program supports a broad range of initiatives for quality K-8 instruction and curricula, college readiness and teacher and administrator development.
The foundation has also supported initiatives that provide counseling and guidance to K-12 students.
Past grantees include AskRose Homework Help, Central Indiana’s Center for Leadership Development, and the Comprehensive Counseling Initiative for Indiana, the Teacher Creativity Fellowship and the University of Indiana’s Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning.
Grants for Higher Education and Christian Education
Lilly supports higher education through its education and religion programs. The education initiative prioritizes the state of Indiana and minority students across the U.S.
Operating exclusively in Indiana, its Higher Education and Intellectual Capital sub-initiative supports Indiana institutions to “create world-class facilities, attract and retain top research and teaching talent and enhance the academic experiences of their students.” Lilly also pledged $100 million to Purdue in early 2024 to be evenly divided between the Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. School of Business and the university’s Purdue Computes initiative.
The Lilly Endowment’s Higher Education and Workforce Readiness program works with organizations in Indiana and in other parts of the U.S. to support initiatives that increase college completion and career readiness, prioritizing groups that are underrepresented in higher education. The endowment gave $50 million to the Career Pathways Initiative, a national program that helps historically black colleges align liberal arts curricula with the development of skills that help students gain meaningful employment after graduation.
A third sub-program, Strategic and Community Advancement, funds “strategic initiatives in Indiana that build on the work of community foundations, educational institutions and other local and regional community organizations and partnerships to plan for and build greater community and regional prosperity.” Funding from this subprogram overlaps significantly with the endowment’s community development funding for Indiana, which focuses on supporting industry, talent pipelines and quality of life in the state.
Lilly also recently established the $300 million College and Community Collaboration initiative to provide “Indiana colleges and universities the opportunity to apply for grants to help them envision and undertake collaborative projects with community stakeholders that enhance quality of life and place in their surrounding communities.”
Lilly’s religion program aims “to deepen and enrich the religious lives of American Christians, principally by supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations.” To this end, Lilly runs a Thriving Congregations initiative, which makes grants to support Christian churches in the United States. Lilly supports many different Christian denominations.
The Endowment has supported theological seminaries, divinity schools and associations of religiously-affiliated colleges and universities. Other recipients of major grants within Lilly’s religion grantmaking include everything from theological seminaries to liberal arts schools founded by Christian ministers, such as Wabash College and Duke University.
Grants for Community Development and Culture
The Lilly Endowment does not name housing and homelessness as a core area of grantmaking interest, but has supported several initiatives for affordable housing in Indiana via its community development program. Other subprograms include:
The Strengthening Indianapolis subprogram addresses strong neighborhoods; intellectual capital and community economic development; effective and sustainable human service organizations; arts and culture organizations; enhancing opportunity in Indianapolis; and the The Indianapolis African American Quality of Life Initiative, among other opportunities.
The Strengthening Indiana subprogram invests in Indiana Humanities; Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT), a series of state-wide initiatives; grants to the Indiana Historical Society; Indiana Landmarks; and Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations’ statewide journalism collaboration, among other community advancement opportunities.
Grants for Economic Development and Racial Equity
The Lilly Endowment regularly supports K-12 education, higher education, economic development, and career development initiatives that prioritize communities of color. The Endowment states at its website, “We have a special interest in advancing the success of students of color and students from low-income households. On a national level, we support on an invitational basis programs that expand and enhance higher education opportunities for African Americans, Native Americans and Latino Americans.”
Grantees include 100 Black Men of Indianapolis, the National Association of Black Accountants, the Indiana Black Expo, The American Indian College Fund, and the African American Experience of the 19th Century program at the Conner Prairie Museum in Indiana. In 2024, the Endowment gave a historic $100 million to the United Negro College Fund to support HBCU endowments.
Other Grantmaking Opportunities:
Additionally, the Lilly Endowment funds disaster relief and recovery efforts, veterans’ affairs, and public policy organizations across the U.S. The Endowment has been a major supporter of the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.
The Lilly Endowment also names several evolving special initiatives.
Important Grant Details:
In a recent year, the Lilly Endowment made over $1 billion in grants, spread about evenly over its three grantmaking areas: community, education and religion. Grants range from $5,000 to tens of millions, with many of the endowment’s largest grants representing multi-year commitments.
About half of this funder’s grants support Indiana-based organizations, but organizations across the U.S. receive funding.
The foundation’s robust religion funding initiative features a broader geographic scope and supports organizations representing a broad range of Christian denominations.
Lilly also supports a selection of national education organizations that prioritize the achievement of students who are underrepresented in higher education.
The Endowment maintains a searchable database of past grants on its website as well as its most recent annual report.
The Lilly Endowment accepts letters of inquiry of no more than two pages by mail at any time. All inquiries will receive written responses, and some will be invited to submit full proposals.
The Endowment cautions prospective grantees that while it receives thousands of worthwhile inquiries each year, it can only fund a small percentage of these.
General injuries may be directed to the endowment’s staff via its contact page.
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