The Marshall County Community Foundation has received a $500,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. in the sixth phase of the Endowment’s Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT) initiative for Indiana community foundations. “We are extremely grateful to Lilly Endowment for its continued generosity and support of the Marshall County Community Foundation,” said Linda Yoder, executive director for the Foundation. “This grant will help us build capacity to provide local solutions to local problems. The growth of endowment funds to address both emerging needs and other charitable purposes will serve our community for generations to come.”
Begun nearly 25 years ago, the GIFT initiative was designed by Lilly Endowment to help local Indiana communities develop the philanthropic capacity to address their own needs and challenges. Now 94 community foundation and county affiliate funds throughout Indiana make grants to support local charitable organizations in all of Indiana’s 92 counties. The number of community foundations in the state has grown to that number from about a dozen in 1990. During the same period, the aggregate value of the assets of Indiana community foundations that have regularly participated in GIFT has increased from about $30 million to nearly $2 billion, and those community foundations have paid grants totaling more than $915 million. Now, Yoder noted, the value of assets in Marshall County alone has topped $30 million and over $12.5 million has been paid in grants to support local charitable causes.
Through five GIFT phases, Lilly Endowment grants related to Indiana community foundations, totaling some $958 million, have been used for endowment building, operating support, college scholarships, special charitable and educational projects and programs, fundraising capacity building, and convening and technical assistance.
GIFT Phase VI provides matching incentives with at least half of the grant dedicated to building the community foundation’s unrestricted endowment funds. Due to the importance of these funds in responding to critical needs as they evolve, Lilly Endowment will match dollar for dollar contributions to this type of fund.
MCCF’s Community Fund is an example of an unrestricted fund and it is one of the most flexible and responsive of the Foundation’s 318 funds. Grants from this endowment fund address needs throughout Marshall County typically focusing on the arts, education, health and human services, recreation and the environment. Twice each year, nonprofit organizations are invited to submit proposals for new, innovative, and collaborative projects. Members of the community serving on the MCCF Grants Committee evaluate the proposals, and conduct site visits during a competitive application process. Currently unrestricted funds at MCCF exceed $4 million, enabling the Foundation to award more than $160,000 in grants on an annual basis. With $250,000 in match funding available for contributions to this type of endowment, the ability to respond to emerging needs will grow.
In addition, the remaining $250,000 in grant funding may be used to support contributions to all other new or existing MCCF endowment funds (scholarships, agency, field of interest or donor advised funds) with a fifty cent on the dollar match. “We expect with this incentive that the response will be quick and we are planning accordingly,” Yoder said. “We are encouraging those who are considering a contribution to an endowment fund to do so now.” Incentives will be awarded on a ‘first in’ basis with qualifications for the match limited to $100,000 per entity.
For more information on the Marshall County Community Foundation and match qualifications, call 574.935.5159, email info@marshallcountycf.org , visit the MCCF website at www.marshallcountycf.org or stop by the MCCF office at 2701 N Michigan Street, Plymouth.
About Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly and his two sons, Eli and J.K. Jr., with gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical company. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. More information can be found at www.lillyendowment.org.
About the Marshall County Community Foundation
The Marshall County Community Foundation is a public charity with local roots that helps great ideas take flight through endowment philanthropy. Since 1991, donors to the Marshall County Community Foundation have built the community’s assets currently valued at more than $30 million and have returned over $12.5 million to Marshall County communities in grants and scholarships. For more information about the Foundation, call 574.935.9159 or visit www.marshallcountycf.org.
