Lilly Endowment grants millions to Junior Achievement

INDIANAPOLIS (Inside INdiana Business) — Junior Achievement of Central Indiana has been awarded two grants through the Lilly Endowment’s latest round of contributions to charitable organizations. A $5 million grant is one of 13 totaling over $54 million designed to help organizations benefiting children in central Indiana. The sustainability grant will be used to fund an endowment and to invest in technology upgrades.

“The grant is designed to help Junior Achievement of central Indiana build long-term financial strength and resiliency so that it can better weather unexpected and adverse funding changes,” said Ronni Kloth, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for community development. “The grant is not intended to fund ongoing operating support that is essential to meet the day-to-day needs of the children and youth they serve. In fact, we hope our grant helps Junior Achievement of Central Indiana attract additional support for this important work.”

JACI also received a separate grant of just over $1.3 million in the fall of 2019 to help with the expansion of career exploration programs for preschool through high school students. Some of those programs include JA BizTown and JA JobSpark, which are estimated to involve 40,000 central Indiana students this year.