March 27, 2026
Contact: Judith Cebula
317.916.7327 | communications@lei.org

Grants will help strengthen the capacity of faith-based organizations to respond to disasters nationwide

 

INDIANAPOLIS – Lilly Endowment Inc. has approved 30 grants to help faith-based organizations enhance their efforts to provide aid to those impacted by disasters in communities throughout the United States. The grants, which range from $500,000 to $5 million, were made through an invitational initiative, Hope After the Storm: Capacity Building for Faith-Based Disaster Relief Organizations.

The Endowment recognizes that faith-based organizations play a key role in providing disaster relief services in the United States. They also serve as important vehicles through which individuals and religious communities live out their faith and serve others by volunteering and giving funds and other resources to address the immediate needs of their neighbors.

Organizations receiving grants through Hope After the Storm help in a variety of ways communities affected by disasters. These include meeting individuals’ and families’ immediate needs for food, water, clothing and emergency shelter; repairing and refurnishing damaged homes or rebuilding homes that have been destroyed; providing financial assistance and long-term case management; and providing emotional and spiritual support. They also share information about the needs of individuals and families affected by disasters with their religious communities and help them develop and execute their responses.

The organizations will use their grants to fund a wide array of capacity-building projects, which, among others, include efforts to:

• strengthen their abilities to engage, train, and support volunteers and staff
• enhance how they share information with their religious constituents and solicit contributions and other support from religious communities and individual donors
• purchase new durable equipment, such as shower trailers, mobile kitchens and forklifts
• develop or enhance technology systems with a focus on supporting more efficient and automated processes for tracking activities, volunteers and donors
• provide equipment and educational materials to congregations or other local affiliate organizations in their networks

“The commitment of these organizations to serve individuals and families in times of crisis is motivated by the religious faith of their volunteers, donors and staff members,” said N. Clay Robbins, the Endowment’s Chairman and CEO. “We are pleased to support their strategic and thoughtful plans to enhance and expand their considerable existing capacity to provide disaster relief and recovery assistance into the future.”

The organizations represent a variety of religious communities and faith traditions. They include Christian organizations that are affiliated with mainline Protestant, Catholic, Pentecostal, Orthodox, evangelical, non-denominational communities, and Black church and historic peace church traditions. Other organizations are affiliated with Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist faith traditions.

A list of the grants can be found here.

The Endowment invited selected organizations to participate in the two stages of Hope After the Storm. In the first stage, organizations received planning grants of up to $50,000 to help them assess programs and operations, explore the most pressing challenges they face in responding to disasters, and design capacity-building projects to respond to those challenges. In the second stage, the organizations could apply for implementation grants to execute their plans.

The grants complement the Endowment’s long history of support for disaster relief and recovery, principally through grants made to the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army, and its grantmaking in religion to help individuals and families live out their faith more fully.

About Lilly Endowment
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic 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. While those gifts of stock remain the 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 and maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.