In 2023, Lilly Endowment announced the newest round of its Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow community foundation initiative, Phase VIII (GIFT VIII). This initiative is based upon the Endowment’s longstanding belief that community foundations are uniquely positioned to play central roles in supporting and strengthening communities throughout Indiana.

The Endowment has allocated up to $210 million for this multi-year initiative, which aims to support Indiana’s community foundations in their efforts to:

• Grow their financial resources to promote long-term viability and sustainability.
• Further strengthen their leadership capabilities.
• Develop and implement strategic programs, projects and initiatives that enhance their communities’ quality of life.

GIFT VIII Funding Opportunities Overview

• Matching Fund Grants totaling nearly $133.8 million were awarded in 2024 to help community foundations develop unrestricted assets, implement projects and programs that address community needs, and build their internal capacity. Grants ranged from $100,000 to $15 million.
• Community Leadership Grants are meant to help community foundations continue to engage stakeholders in their communities and, if desired, seek funding to develop and implement large-scale action plans that address high priority community challenges and opportunities. These grants were available through two phases.

Phase 1 Planning Grants: More than $7.1 million was awarded in 2023. Grants ranged from $13,014 to $250,000 for community foundations to engage in planning activities aimed at envisioning and developing, in collaboration with community stakeholders, plans to enhance their communities’ quality of life.

Phase 2 Implementation Grants: Community foundations that participated in Phase 1 were eligible to participate in Phase 2, which comprised a two-stage competitive process. In the first stage, community foundations submitted concept papers requesting funding ranging from $5 million to $20 million (based on the populations of the counties they serve) for strategic initiatives and activities that address especially compelling needs in their communities.

Community foundations that submitted the most compelling and promising concepts were invited to participate in the second stage and submit full proposals. The Endowment expects to award these competitive grants in late 2024.

• Board Engagement Grants totaling up to $9.2 million will encourage community foundation board participation and engagement by providing a $100,000 unrestricted grant opportunity to eligible community foundations demonstrating 100 percent board member giving. The Endowment anticipates awarding these grants in 2025.

Eligibility

GIFT VIII is open to all Indiana community foundations that satisfactorily participated in a previous GIFT phase or program. Detailed eligibility requirements can be found in the appendix of the Request for Proposals.

How to Apply

Interested and eligible community foundations may submit their GIFT VIII proposals through the GIFT VIII online application pages linked below:

• Community Leadership Phase 1 Planning Grants:  The submission window for Phase 1 Planning Grants is closed.
• Matching Fund Grants:  The submission window for Matching Fund Grants is closed.
• Community Leadership Phase 2 Implementation Grants:  The submission window for concept papers is closed.
• Board Engagement Grants:  Materials are due by 12 p.m. (ET) on Thursday, July 31, 2025. The application page will go live on July 1, 2025.

Questions
Please email gift@lei.org.