Amount Represents Record for the 83-year-old, Muncie-Based Family Foundation…
By Kelsey Harrington—
Muncie, IN—The year 2020 will go down in history books as a time marked by a global pandemic, civil unrest and racial tension, and a resulting economic crisis. In the midst of these trials, community members and non-profit organizations stood to the challenge and supported fellow neighbors in innovative and timely ways. The George and Frances Ball Foundation proudly invested more than $5.4 million in East Central Indiana non-profits for routine services, programming, and the crucial response to COVID-19.
The Foundation, founded in 1937 by George and Frances Ball, was organized exclusively to promote charitable, scientific and educational purposes, with a strong commitment to the needs of East Central Indiana. The family is well known for their philanthropy and for numerous other accomplishments including championing education, collecting items such as rare children’s literature, and creating the Ball Jar Blue Book.
Honoring the family’s interests and legacy, the Foundation reviews and funds grants across 5 different focus areas including education and youth, civic enhancement, arts and culture, wrap-around services, and nature and historic preservation. The Foundation adopted a new proactive grantmaking strategy in 2018, which carries forward the education-focused legacy of George and Frances Ball with efforts to increase educational attainment through a community Cradle to Career Initiative.
“The Foundation and its donors have had an extensive history supporting education and youth organizations in this community for over 100 years. We believe that not only does Cradle to Career reflect the values and legacy of George and Frances, it is also a proactive approach to addressing the community’s present challenges. One of the strongest ways to increase economic prosperity is through educational attainment,” shared President and CEO Thomas Kinghorn.
Highlights of 2020 include the following.
EDUCATION & YOUTH – $2,915,355 Awarded Across 26 Organizations
- Historically, education and youth has been the primary focus area of the George and Frances Ball Foundation. This year, a number of grants were provided for routine programming and operations of youth serving organizations such as Boys & Girls Clubs of Muncie, Motivate Our Minds, and others.
- The George and Frances Ball Scholars program was established at Ball State University. This endowed 5-million-dollar scholarship program is designed to match funds on a 1:1 basis gifted to Ball State University by donors to be used for scholarship purposes.
- Additionally, multiple grant opportunities were offered to school districts across Delaware County to assist in their response to COVID-19. These school grants focused on food, personal protective equipment (PPE), devices and internet connection, home visit programs for virtual learners, and more.
CIVIC ENHANCEMENT – $1,564,992 Awarded Across 7 Organizations
- Since its inception in the 1980s, the George and Frances Ball Foundation has offered significant support to Minnetrista, the former residential property of the original Ball Brothers. For the 9th consecutive year, the Foundation awarded Minnetrista $1,110,000 for operating and capital support.
- Other highlights include grants made to Cardinal Greenway, East Central Indiana Regional Partnership, Delaware Advancement Corporation Vision 2021, and Ross Community Center. Respectively, these grants supported projects including the final development phase of the Kitselman Trailhead, a new regional lifestyle marketing campaign known as Forge Your Path ECI, a public/private partnership economic development program, and community engagement efforts on the southside of Muncie.
ARTS & CULTURE – $253,225 Awarded Across 5 Organizations
- Many of these organizations were uniquely challenged by COVID-19 as they were forced to significantly adapt or cancel most of their programming for the majority of the year. Organizations such as Youth Symphony Orchestras of East Central Indiana and Cornerstone Center for the Arts were able to welcome community members back to their programming in the second half of 2020 for safe, socially distanced arts programming. Additionally, Muncie Civic Theatre worked diligently to produce a number of outdoor shows that were both safe and engaging.
WRAP-AROUND SERVICES – $528,500 Awarded Across 14 Organizations
- Due to the economic and public health challenges stemming from COVID-19, the Foundation experienced an increase in grant requests for wrap-around services. Starting in March, the Foundation placed a high priority on food needs in the community, supporting both Second Harvest Food Bank and Inside Out Community Development Corporation at record amounts, $67,000 and $52,000 respectively.
- United Way of Delaware, Henry, and Randolph Counties has long been a partner of the George and Frances Ball Foundation. This year, United Way took on a new community leadership role as they led over 60 community organizations on weekly and monthly calls in order to provide updates and offer collaborative opportunities related to COVID-19. This effort resulted in a number of partnerships and multi-organization responses to the pandemic, including the Mask Up Muncie and PIVOT Initiatives.
NATURE & HISTORIC PRESERVATION – $170,000 Awarded Across 4 Organizations
- Red-tail Land Conservancy, a long-time partner of the George and Frances Ball Foundation, saw record engagement and usage of their public properties. Families and individuals turned to outdoor recreation as a primary pastime during the pandemic, uniquely impacting non-profits like Red-tail.
Although 2020 brought with it serious adversity, there were also a number of significant accomplishments. For the Foundation, the most notable accomplishments include continued progress in the Cradle to Career Initiative, heightened collaboration across funders in the community, ongoing partnerships in 2 different national-model pilot projects, and pursuit of 21st Century Talent Region designation for a 7-county East Central Indiana collaborative.
This year, 7 organizations committed to leading Collaborative Action Networks (CANs) for each of the markers on the Cradle to Career continuum. These include BY5 for Kindergarten Readiness, United Way for Third Grade Reading, Innovation Connector for Middle Grade Mathematics, Muncie Community Schools for High School Graduation, Ivy Tech Community College and Ball State University for Postsecondary Enrollment and Completion, and the Muncie-Delaware County Chamber of Commerce for Career/Employment. Moving forward, these CANs will consist of numerous stakeholder organizations and will set goals and strategies to move the needle forward on each of the respective markers.
For the past 4 years, various funders in Delaware County have gathered under the leadership of The Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County through the Funders Forum Collaborative. This group pools collective grant dollars and works together to fund projects related to the year’s topic of choice. Previously, the topic has been the opioid crisis. However, this year, the focus shifted to the COVID-19 pandemic, with an emphasis on responding to pandemic related needs of local schools. The group awarded a record number of grant dollars. In addition to the Funders Forum, many funders in the community worked collaboratively on COVID-19 response through a group spreadsheet that could be updated in live, real-time in order for these funders to stay informed and up-to-date on the activities of their peers.
Delaware County has long been a community stocked full of educational resources. Today, the George and Frances Ball Foundation proudly partners with many of these organizations, including 2 that have embarked on pilot projects potentially resulting in national, best practice models that are detailed below.
- The Foundation supports the partnership between Ball State University and Muncie Community Schools through a $1 million, 3-year commitment to this new, innovative model for public education. To date, the Foundation has partnered with the BSU – MCS partnership to bring Project Lead the Way STEM curriculum to all schools in the district, open preschools in all 6 elementary schools, align K-12 math and language arts curriculum to ensure equitable educational experiences, and build new career training experiences available to students at the Muncie Area Career Center.
- The Foundation acknowledges that a critical component of a person having academic success from Cradle to Career is the extent to which they have a strong Web of Support—at least 5 caring, trusted adults, otherwise known as mentors, in their life. The concept of Web of Support was created by child development expert, Derek Peterson. This work has previously been school-centered and supported by the Institute for Community and Adolescent Resiliency (ICAR-US). Locally, in response to a community identified priority for more mentorship, Muncie Action Plan (MAP) is working closely with ICAR-US to pilot the first community-centered approach to integrating Web of Support. This year, 50 adults and 50 students were trained as Web of Support Ambassadors in Delaware County. Moving into 2021, these Ambassadors and the steering committee will support the integration of Web of Support at the direct service organization level.
To round out 2020, representatives from Delaware County—including the Foundation staff, non-profit leaders, and the Ball State University Office of Community Engagement—have worked alongside leaders from Grant, Jay, Henry, Randolph, Rush, and Wayne Counties to establish a 21st Century Talent Region. Created by Governor Holcomb’s administration, 21st Century Talent Regions are self-defined places, based on geography, that commit to using systems approaches to attract, develop, and connect Hoosier talent. Together, the region is creating a plan focused on increasing educational attainment, raising household income, and growing population. The region will seek official designation from the state by the end of 2020.
To learn more about the Foundation or to find information about 2021 grant opportunities, please visit: www.gfballfdn.org or look for the George and Frances Ball Foundation page on Facebook.
