Foundation Receives $1 Million Matching Grant to Grow Grantmaking in Muncie and Delaware County

The Community Foundation uses unrestricted funds to support the Quarterly Competitive Grants program and responds to current community needs. Pictured, students work to beautify the city to gain work experience and earn a paycheck through TeenWorks’ Summer Employment Program. The Foundation has supported this and other programs through TeenWorks since 2014. Photo providedThe Community Foundation uses unrestricted funds to support the Quarterly Competitive Grants program and responds to current community needs. Pictured, students work to beautify the city to gain work experience and earn a paycheck through TeenWorks’ Summer Employment Program. The Foundation has supported this and other programs through TeenWorks since 2014. Photo provided

December 6, 2018

By: Kallie Sulanke—

Muncie, Indiana – The Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County, Inc. has received a grant of $1 million as part of Lilly Endowment Inc.’s seventh phase of its Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT) initiative. With GIFT VII, Lilly Endowment is making up to $125 million available to help Indiana community foundations strengthen the towns, cities and counties they serve.

The Community Foundation can use this matching fund grant to further build financial assets and support charitable activities. Lilly Endowment will provide $2 for every $1 contributed to the Foundation’s unrestricted funds during the matching period, October 1, 2018, through December 31, 2020.

“Through Lilly Endowment’s GIFT VII, we will grow The Unrestricted Fund of The Community Foundation, which supports grantmaking in Muncie and Delaware County,” said Kelly K. Shrock, president of The Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County. “We are excited to be able to look to our community to help us achieve this match just as we have through the other GIFT matching opportunities.”

The Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County, Inc. is a publicly supported philanthropic institution governed by a volunteer board of local citizens. The Foundation manages contributions donated by individuals, businesses, and corporations as a permanent community endowment. Distributions from these funds are given back to the community in the form of grants to nonprofit organizations. To date, more than $50 million has been awarded to enrich the lives of the residents of Muncie and Delaware County.

The GIFT initiative is part of Lilly Endowment’s grantmaking to strengthen Indiana communities and has been a priority of the Endowment since the first phase of GIFT in 1990. The initiative’s primary aim is to help Indiana community foundations develop the philanthropic capacity to identify, prioritize and address local opportunities and challenges.

 Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by three members of the Lilly family – J.K. Lilly Sr. and sons J.K. Jr. and Eli – through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly & Company. The Endowment exists to support causes of community development, education and religion. Lilly Endowment’s community development grantmaking is designed to support efforts that enhance the quality of life in Indianapolis and Indiana.