Dec. 9, 2025
Contact: Judith Cebula
317.916.7327 | communications@lei.org

 Grants will help Indiana residential youth camps improve experiences through capital projects

 

INDIANAPOLIS  – Lilly Endowment Inc. has approved 68 grants totaling more than $77 million to help residential (overnight) youth camps in Indiana enhance and expand their facilities, which are integral to their work to provide high-quality programming and experiences that contribute to positive outcomes for youth.

The grants, which range from $750,000 to $1.5 million, will help organizations that run residential youth camps in 44 counties across Indiana improve cabins, dining halls, outdoor recreation spaces, chapels, and technology and utility infrastructure, among other upgrades.

The Endowment is making the grants through its three-phase Capital Project Initiative for Residential Youth Camps. Earlier this year, the Endowment invited eligible organizations that own and operate residential youth camps in Indiana to apply for phase 1 planning grants designed to help them assess facility needs and prepare proposals for phases 2 and 3 funding. Phase 2 grant amounts are based on the number of youth served by the camp programs.

These new grants in phase 2 of the initiative are supporting organizations that reflect a wide variety of residential youth camp offerings in Indiana. They include YMCA camps, faith-based camps, camps affiliated with Scouting America and the Girl Scouts, and camps that focus on children and youth with unique health challenges, among others. The initiative complements the Endowment’s long-standing support of youth-serving organizations in Indiana.

“Camps play important roles in connecting youth with nature and the outdoors and with fostering their social, educational, character and spiritual development. But they need high-quality, up-to-date facilities to do this work effectively,” said Ted Maple, the Endowment’s vice president for education. “Organizations serving youth through residential camps in Indiana proposed thoughtful, strategic capital project plans, and we are pleased to be able to support these plans for significant upgrades to their facilities.”

See the grants list here.

In Phase 3 of the Capital Project Initiative for Residential Youth Camps, eligible organizations can apply for large-scale grants to help them partially fund the construction of new facilities, major facility upgrades, new land acquisition to expand camp properties, or similar large projects. In this phase, the Endowment will make available grants ranging from up to $2.5 million to up to $10 million depending on the average number of youth served by the camps, and other factors. The deadline to submit proposals for these large-scale competitive grants is January 12, 2026. More information about this initiative can be found on the Endowment’s website here.

About Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based, private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly and his sons, Eli and J.K. Jr., through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, the Endowment is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. 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.