Grants support out-of-school programs, Ball family legacies, and more.
By Kelsey Harrington—
MUNCIE, IN— George and Frances Ball Foundation is celebrating a year of collaboration, impactful investments, and continued development of the Cradle to Career Muncie Initiative alongside 70+ community partners. Earlier this month, the Foundation announced its fourth quarter competitive grant awards, which rounded out a total of $5 million in awards to nonprofits in Muncie and Delaware County in 2024.
To support the continued operation and strategy implementation of the various components of Cradle to Career Muncie, the Foundation makes a variety of grants throughout the year. This quarter, grants awarded to directly support these collective impact efforts included:
- $100,000 to the Third Grade Reading Collaborative Action Network (CAN) for strategic plan implementation for 2025. This includes support for the Heart of Indiana United Way’s Director of Learning Supports who facilitates the work of the CAN, as well as funding to support strategies to mobilize neighborhoods and families in support of literacy, transform physical spaces for play-based learning, boost children and families’ access to letters, words, and books, and celebrate literacy across the community.
- $160,000 to Muncie Community Schools for the Educational Data and Outcomes Team. The EDO Team supports data and evaluation needs both at the school district, as well as for Cradle to Career Muncie and its partners.
- $45,000 across the various Collaborative Action Network Leader organizations. These eight organizations play a critical role in convening key stakeholders from the community on the topic areas for Cradle to Career Muncie in order to collectively impact better outcomes for kids and families. Small, general operating grants were awarded in gratitude for their leadership.
Cradle to Career Muncie has a number of collaborative partners that provide a variety of programs and services for families throughout Muncie and beyond. George and Frances Ball Foundation is proud to provide programmatic and operational support to many of these organizations. This quarter, the Foundation awarded the following grants to out-of-school partners:
- $165,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs of Muncie for their afterschool programs at their Buley Center, Madison Street, and Southside Middle School locations.
- $15,000 to College Mentors for Kids for their Ball State University Chapter that provides weekly, year-long programming for students at East Washington Academy, Grissom, Longfellow, and South View Elementary Schools.
- $40,000 to Second Harvest Food Bank for the BIG IDEA Initiative. This nontraditional food giveaway event offers a monthly connection point for families at all Muncie Community Schools to access essential resources.
- $185,000 to Heart of Indiana United Way for general operating support. United Way serves in multiple leadership roles within the Cradle to Career Muncie initiative, primarily lending their team’s expertise on supporting the whole family, improving early life outcomes, and advancing literacy.
Beyond the strategic focuses of education and youth development, which are at the center of the Cradle to Career Muncie, the Foundation also has a longstanding history of supporting organizations in the community that contribute to quality of place, as well as those that provide critical, wrap-around supports to neighbors who need them the most. This quarter’s grants in these other focus areas included:
- $30,000 to 8twelve Coalition to support implementation of their 2025 neighborhood revitalization action plan for Thomas Park Avondale and South Central neighborhoods.
- $34,000 to Christian Ministries of Delaware County for their Emergency Men’s Sleeping Room winter shelter program and security system replacement.
- $7,500 to Muncie Three Trails Music Series for the summer 2025 free concert series at Canan Commons and the Ball State University Brown Family Ampitheatre.
- $1,110,000 to Minnetrista Museum & Gardens for operations and capital projects. Minnetrista Museum & Gardens is the former residential property of the Ball family and, today, serves as a gathering place and significant community asset, providing lifelong learning opportunities for all ages.
To learn more about the Foundation or to find information about 2025 grant opportunities, please visit www.gfballfdn.org or find the George and Frances Ball Foundation page on Facebook.
Honoring the family’s interests and legacy for more nearly 90 years, 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 place-based 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 Muncie initiative.
