Blue River Community Foundation receives GIFT IX initiative grant

Blue River Community Foundation (BRCF) has received a $750,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through the Community Support Grant component of the ninth phase of its Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT IX) initiative.

This is one of 92 Community Support Grants being awarded through GIFT IX, a statewide Lilly Endowment initiative designed to support the efforts of the community foundations to strengthen the quality of life in communities they serve.

The Community Support Grant is designed to provide the community foundation with flexible funding to enhance its grantmaking capacity to address compelling, near-term needs in its county. The community foundation will have up to three years to use its grant to address community-driven priorities.

“This flexible investment in Shelby County gives our organization, alongside other community stakeholders, a unique opportunity to assess our community’s current needs and opportunities and determine a strategic plan to address them, creating both immediate impact and long-lasting enhancements to the quality of life in our county,” said Blue River Community Foundation Executive Director Jennifer Jones. “In the upcoming months, we will work side by side with our partners at MHP, Healthy Shelby County, Shelby County YMCA, and other local social service agencies pulling together our resources, insights, data, and capabilities to ensure the funding is used as effectively as possible.”

“These grant funds allow Blue River Community Foundation to work alongside our community partners to continue convening and connecting the organizations that need to be at the table,” said Beth Case, President of the BRCF Board of Directors. “By bringing people together, we can better understand our community’s needs and strengthen the collective efforts that help Shelby County thrive.”

Lilly Endowment created the GIFT initiative in 1990 to help local communities in Indiana develop the philanthropic capacity to identify local needs and challenges and work with other organizations and residents to help their communities thrive.

Through GIFT IX, Lilly Endowment has allocated up to $271.5 million to support Indiana’s community foundations in growing their financial resources and further strengthening their ability to address their community’s highest-priority challenges and opportunities.

Blue River Community Foundation was born from ideas and efforts of the 1988 Leadership Shelby County cohort. BRCF awards grant dollars to nonprofit and charitable organizations that support our community in the areas of healthcare, education, art and culture, recreation, civic areas, and social services.

Since providing its first grant in 1994, BRCF has supported Shelby County with over $35,000,000 in grants and scholarships.

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