Two new national initiatives seek to strengthen ministries with college students

October 1, 2026
Contact: Judith Cebula
317.916.7327 | communications@lei.org

Two new national initiatives seek to strengthen ministries with college students

INDIANAPOLIS – Lilly Endowment is inviting colleges and universities and Christian organizations that support student ministries at or near public and private campuses to apply for grants to enhance efforts that nurture the religious lives of young people.

The Endowment is allocating up to $300 million to support these efforts through two competitive national initiatives.

Through the National Initiative to Strengthen Chaplaincies at Colleges and Universities (Chaplaincy Initiative) the Endowment is making available grants of up to $2.5 million each to accredited, four-year colleges and universities in the United States to help them strengthen the work of chaplaincies or offices of religious life on their own campuses. The Endowment anticipates awarding approximately 60 grants in the Chaplaincy Initiative.

Through the National Initiative to Strengthen Christian Campus Ministries at Colleges and Universities (Campus Ministry Initiative) the Endowment is making available grants of up to $7.5 million each to national and regional denominational agencies, campus ministry parachurch organizations and collegiate ministries associations, among others, to strengthen local Christian campus ministries at or near public and private universities and colleges. The Endowment anticipates awarding approximately 20 grants in the Campus Ministry Initiative.

“We have received many reports from college and university presidents, deans, mission officers, faculty, chaplains and campus pastors about a significant uptick in the number of students who are participating in worship services and other religious activities,” said Christopher Coble, the Endowment’s vice president for religion. “The new initiatives are intended to enhance and expand opportunities for students attending a wide variety of colleges and universities to explore spiritual questions, draw on their faith as they make decisions about their futures, connect with something larger than themselves and find communities of belonging and purpose”

The two initiatives offer distinct grant opportunities. The Chaplaincy Initiative is designed to assist private colleges and universities that have chaplaincy programs or offices of student religious life in assessing the effectiveness of their current ministries with students and, based on their findings, in implementing efforts to enhance religious life on their campuses.

The Campus Ministry Initiative is designed to help denominational and other faith-based collegiate ministry organizations in developing and implementing efforts to increase the effectiveness and capacities of multiple local Christian campus ministries in their networks to reach and serve college students – especially students attending public or private, secular universities and colleges. In this initiative, eligible organizations may request to use a portion of their grants to create or increase a pool of funds to provide greater financial support to local Christian campus ministries.

Learn more about the Chaplaincy Initiative here.
Learn more about the Christian Campus Ministry Initiative here.

“Ministries that serve students on college and university campuses are facing many challenges,” Coble noted. “The Endowment hopes that the two initiatives will help these ministries not only address their immediate challenges but also take steps to sustain them into the future.”

The Chaplaincy Initiative and Campus Ministry Initiative complement other Endowment-supported efforts focused on deepening the religious lives of students and strengthening higher education.

These include support for the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE), which is based at the Council of Independent Colleges. Founded in 2009, it is a membership network comprising nearly 350 U.S. colleges and universities. Member schools exchange knowledge and insights about how best to support students as they draw on their faith traditions, as well as ethical and philosophical traditions, to discern their varied callings and to explore how to lead lives of meaning and purpose.

Also, the Endowment has helped fund the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities. Founded in 1991, it is a membership network of 110 colleges and universities that seeks to strengthen the quality and character of church-related higher education. Through conferences, fellowships and other related activities, this network helps church-related colleges and universities sharpen their missions and identities and cultivates and supports the leadership for these schools.

About Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lilly Endowment Inc.is an Indianapolis-based private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion. Although the Endowment maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana, it also funds programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion. A principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of religion and lift up in fair, accurate and balanced ways the roles that people of all faiths and various religious communities play in the United State and around the globe traditions in the United States and across the globe.