Lilly Endowment is pleased to announce 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

Eligible community foundations may request grants through three funding opportunities highlighted below and described more fully in the GIFT VIII Request for Proposals.

• Matching Fund Grants totaling up to $135.3 million will enable community foundations to develop unrestricted assets, implement projects and programs that address community needs, and build their internal capacity. Eligible community foundations may submit proposals requesting grants ranging from $750,000 to $15,000,000 based on the population of the counties they serve.
• Community Leadership Grants totaling up to $65.5 million will enable community foundations to 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. Community Leadership Grants will be available in a two-phase process: a non-competitive planning phase and a competitive implementation phase.

For each phase of the Community Leadership Grants component, community foundations that want to work with community foundations in other counties may submit or collaborate on up to two (2) proposals including one or both of the following: 1) a proposal for the county the community foundation serves; and/or 2) a joint/regional proposal for a multi-county region.

Phase 1 Planning Grants: Each eligible community foundation may submit a proposal requesting a Community Leadership Grant ranging from $50,000 to $250,000 (based on the population of the counties it serves) to engage in planning activities aimed at envisioning and developing, in collaboration with community stakeholders, plans to enhance its communities’ quality of life.

Phase 2 Implementation Grants: Each community foundation that participates in Phase 1 for a Community Leadership Planning Grant will be eligible to participate in Phase 2, which comprises a two-stage process. In the first stage, a community foundation may submit a concept paper requesting funding ranging from $5 million to $20 million (based on the population of the counties it serves) for strategic initiatives and activities that address especially compelling needs in its communities.

Community foundations that submit the most compelling and promising concepts will be invited to participate in the second stage of Phase 2 of the Community Leadership Grants component, which will also be competitive, and submit full proposals for funding later in 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.

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 application window for Phase 1 Planning Grants is now closed.
• Matching Fund Grants:  The submission window for Matching Fund Grants is now closed.
• Community Leadership Phase 2 Implementation Grants:  The submission window for concept papers is now 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.