Goshen College receives $100,000 grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc.

Goshen College has received a $100,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to be used for strategic planning toward developing creative and bold strategies to become even more relevant, effective and sustainable.

“We are so very grateful for this Charting the Future grant and for the resources that Lilly Endowment generously and steadily provide for Indiana colleges and universities,” said President Dr. Rebecca Stoltzfus. “This grant will give us greater freedom as we plan for Goshen’s future and seek new ways to prepare our students to thrive in life, leadership and service.”

The grant is through Lilly Endowment’s Charting the Future for Indiana’s Colleges and Universities, a new initiative to help Indiana’s 38 higher education institutions further develop strategies to strengthen their effectiveness and sustainability.

Lilly Endowment is making available grants totaling $108.2 million over three phases to help Indiana colleges and universities address their key challenges and take advantage of promising opportunities to enhance their relevance and sustainability.

Through its request for proposals, Lilly Endowment is encouraging higher education leaders to explore collaborative strategies. These efforts could include collaborations among colleges and universities in Indiana or around the country and with business, governmental or charitable organizations.

“We are encouraging Indiana’s higher education leaders to be bold and imaginative in developing creative and collaborative strategies to strengthen their institutions and further their educational missions more effectively,” said Dr. Ted Maple, the Endowment’s vice president for education. “We are impressed with the dedication of Indiana’s higher education leaders to face head on their challenges and embrace their opportunities to build brighter futures for their students and colleges and universities.”

Three phases of grantmaking:

In the first phase, Lilly Endowment has made planning grants totaling nearly $6.2 million to all of Indiana’s eligible two- and four-year colleges and universities. Planning grants were awarded based on student enrollment at each school and GC received the maximum amount for a school of its size. These planning grants are designed to encourage reflection, research and consultation so leaders can better prioritize the challenges and opportunities they wish to pursue and prepare their implementation grant proposals for funding under phase two of this initiative.

Through the second phase, Lilly Endowment will offer colleges and universities the opportunity to apply for implementation grants of up to $1 million, $2.5 million or $5 million. The amounts per institution are based on student enrollment. Lilly Endowment expects to award these grants in late 2020.

For the third phase, the Endowment has allocated up to $40 million to be awarded on an invitational basis for large-scale proposals that seek to address extraordinarily compelling challenges or opportunities that would require funding in excess of the amounts institutions can receive through phase two implementation grants.

The colleges and universities are invited to submit, along with their phase two implementation grant proposals, brief concept papers describing the challenge or opportunity they seek to address and their plan for addressing it.

After reviewing these concept papers, the Endowment will invite institutions with the most compelling concept papers to submit full, large-scale proposals of up to $10 million. From these proposals, the Endowment will select in late 2020 those that will be awarded funding.

 

About Lilly Endowment Inc.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, the Endowment is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.