Lilly Endowment granting millions to Indiana organizations

INDIANAPOLIS (Inside INdiana Business) — Lilly Endowment will release $33.5 million in new grants to help respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The grants include $30 million to Indiana United Ways, which will administer the resources through its statewide network to help meet Hoosier needs, and a $3.5 million grant to United Way of Central Indiana will be used to help the five counties it serves outside of Marion County.

The $30 million IUW grant will help those in the 86 Indiana counties not served by UWCI. IUW will allocate funding to the 86 counties on a per capita basis through a network of over 50 United Ways and United Funds, and other local organizations. Grant funds will be used to supplement social service networks to provide families and individuals with food, housing help and emergency childcare for first responders and healthcare workers.

“The COVID-19 crisis is affecting every community in Indiana,” said Ronni Kloth, the Endowment’s vice president for community development. “Indiana United Ways will work quickly to get grant funds to local organizations around the state that are well-positioned to help meet the needs of their neighbors. We hope these resources will encourage and support these organizations in this critically important work.”

The new grants come on the heels of a $15 million grant to UWCI to support the Central Indiana COVID-19 Community Economic Relief Fund to help organizations in Marion, Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks and Morgan Counties. 

“The needs in Marion County are growing dramatically each day,” Kloth added. “With this grant, we want to make sure that the other counties United Way of Central Indiana serves have additional resources to meet their own rapidly growing needs.”