Lilly Endowment has awarded 92 grants to help congregations strengthen ministries to help people deepen their relationships with God, build strong relationships with each other and contribute to the flourishing of local communities and the world.

In the latest round of grantmaking for its Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT) initiative, Lilly Endowment is awarding $10.65 million to community foundations across Indiana. The grants are designed to help community foundations address a wide variety of local priorities.

Colleges and universities in Indiana are planning new strategies to address the challenges affecting higher education, and Lilly Endowment is making grants to support their efforts through its initiative, Charting the Future for Indiana’s Colleges and Universities.

Lilly Endowment’s 2019 annual report reflects a belief in the power and potential of collaboration to address societal challenges and further important causes in its three areas of grantmaking as established by its founders: religion, education and community development.

Indiana Humanities and the Indianapolis Public Library have received funding from Lilly Endowment to help meet the demand across the state, and funds will be distributed across Indiana to provide books and materials that advance racial equity to circulating collections.

Lilly Endowment is launching a fund of up to $20 million to help youth serving organizations in Indiana address some of the challenges they face because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund is part of the more than $156 million the Endowment has dedicated since March 2020 to help organizations respond to the effects of COVID-19.

The Rev. Tito Madrazo is joining the staff at Lilly Endowment as a program director in the religion division. An ordained Baptist pastor, Madrazo has served congregations in Texas and North Carolina and comes to the Endowment most recently from teaching and research positions at Duke University’s Divinity School in Durham, NC.

A coalition of local stakeholders has established the Central Indiana Racial Equity Fund with an initial investment of more than $2.2 million to advance effective solutions to racial inequality in Indianapolis and its surrounding counties.

The Arts Council of Indianapolis announced a new program designed to help Marion County nonprofit arts and cultural organizations reopen and reimagine their mission delivery in a world informed by the new realities of COVID-19.

Early Learning Indiana announced a $15.7 million grant from Lilly Endowment to create the Come Back Stronger Fund. The fund is designed to reinforce Indiana’s high-quality early learning opportunities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.