Lilly Endowment believes that community foundations are uniquely positioned to play central roles in supporting and strengthening their communities. In 1990, the Endowment launched the Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT) initiative to help establish and further develop community foundations throughout Indiana. The Endowment hoped that Indiana’s community foundations could enhance quality of life in their communities by convening conversations among people of diverse ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, occupations, races and cultural traditions about their communities’ most compelling needs and opportunities as well as the best ways to address them.

Since 1990, the Endowment has invested more than $900 million in community foundations through the GIFT initiative, related programs and technical assistance for the field. The Endowment has been encouraged by the progress Indiana community foundations have made in establishing themselves as trusted institutions within their respective communities. When GIFT began, there were fewer than 12 community foundations in the state with assets totaling approximately $100 million. Today, a community foundation or affiliate fund serves every county in Indiana, and combined assets for community foundations that have regularly participated in GIFT have grown to approximately $3.7 billion as of the end of 2022. At the same time, community foundations have played increasingly important leadership roles across the state, working with local and regional partners to address community priorities.

GIFT VIII

In 2023, the Endowment announced the newest round of GIFT, Phase VIII, with $210 million allocated 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; and develop and implement strategic programs, projects and initiatives that enhance their communities’ quality of life.

Community Leadership Planning Grants totaling more than $7.1 million were awarded in 2023 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. 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.

Community Leadership Implementation Grants, available through a two-stage competitive process, are meant to help community foundations implement large-scale action plans that address high priority community challenges and opportunities. Community foundations that submitted the most compelling and promising concept papers were invited to submit full proposals. The Endowment expects to award these competitive grants in late 2024. Board Engagement Grants, meant to encourage community foundation board participation and engagement, will be made available in 2025. LEARN MORE

GIFT VII

The previous round of GIFT, Phase VII, which launched in 2018, encouraged community foundations to contemplate how they could further develop and strengthen their effectiveness as local leaders. Planning grants encouraged foundations to seek input from their communities in broad and inclusive ways. Non-competitive implementation grants enabled foundations to execute projects or programs designed to address community challenges and opportunities identified during the planning phase. Competitive, large-scale implementation grants provided funding for foundations to address more substantial needs or opportunities in their communities. GIFT VII also included a matching grant component that helped foundations build their unrestricted assets and a board engagement grant component that reinforced the critical role of community foundation board members.

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