Lilly Endowment - Recipients

Recipients

One of the Endowment's most remarkable achievements has been its Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT) initiative. Since 1987, this initiative has been responsible for starting and growing Indiana community foundations. Today, Indiana has more community foundations than any other state. Total assets of these foundations are nearly $1.5 billion.

From its inception, Lilly Endowment has supported numerous religious endeavors. Among these was Eli Lilly's Christ Church, in which he was involved throughout his life, beginning as a choir boy. Upon his death, a contingency of the bequest to the church was that Christ Church would stay in the heart of downtown Indianapolis. Support of a wide variety of religious endeavors was a way for Lilly to encourage character development.

Other recipients of Lilly Endowments have included the Rockefeller funded and ecumenical Association of Theological Schools and also Search Institute which lists the following dates for receiving Lilly grants:

• 1966 Lilly Endowment provides $50,000 for the Youth Ministry project;

• 1974 Two major projects are under way: Readiness for Ministry for the Association of Theological Schools, funded by the Lilly Endowment;

• 1976 Readiness for Ministry project is successfully completed. Lilly Endowment awards additional funds to introduce the program to Association of Theological Schools seminaries over a six-year period.

• 1981 Lilly Endowment awards grant of $273,000 for the Study of Early Adolescents and Their Parents.

• 1988 A landmark study begins: Effective Christian Education: A National Study of Protestant Congregations, funded by the Lilly Endowment.

• 1999 Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation. Between 1999 and 2002, 88 colleges and universities established or strengthened programs that 1) assist students in examining the relationship between faith and vocational choices, 2) provide opportunities for gifted young people to explore Christian ministry, and 3) enhance the capacity of a school's faculty and staff to teach and mentor students effectively in this arena. These schools received grants totaling $136.5 million.

• 2003 Emory University's Candler School of Theology was awarded a four-year, $2,182,200 grant by the Lilly Endowment Inc. for its Youth Theological Initiative, a 10-year-old center for research and theological education of youth that has become a model for such programs across the nation.

Search Institute is a psychology based, not-for-profit, ecumenical Youth Research organization. It is supported by grants and contracts from foundations, corporations, and government agencies, proceeds from the sales of products and services, and tax-deductible contributions from individuals and organizations.

Another recipient of the Lilly Endowment has included the ecumenical Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) congregations, who wish to pattern their ministry after Charles E. Fuller, the father of New Evangelicalism, with one project called the Bethany Project. The Bethany Project is a pilot project in congregational revitalization funded by the Lilly Endowment, for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

The Hudson Institute, a conservative non-profit think tank is also a large recipient of funds from the Lilly endowment.