Scott County Community Foundation (SCCF) has received a matching fund grant totaling $750,000 from Lilly Endowment Inc. as part of the ninth phase of its initiative, Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT IX).
Scott County Community Foundation will use the funding to build unrestricted endowment funds to support nonprofits, schools, and public safety projects during its Community Grants Program. Qualifying matching funds raised to support SCCF’s unrestricted endowment will be eligible for a $2(grantor)-to-$1(grantee) match from Lilly Endowment.
“This is an extraordinary opportunity for Scott County,” said SCCF Executive Director Jaime Toppe. “Upon meeting the matching opportunity, this could mean over $40,000 more each year for grants to our community. The needs in Scott County continue to change, and growing our unrestricted endowment gives us the flexibility to support local organizations and respond where help is needed most, year after year.”
Through GIFT IX, Lilly Endowment has awarded matching grants totaling $124.5 million to community foundations across Indiana. Eligible community foundations submitted proposals requesting grants ranging from $250,000 to $13.2 million based on the population of the counties they served.
Lilly Endowment created the GIFT initiative in 1990 to help local communities in Indiana develop the philanthropy 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 awarded $259.7 million to support community foundations in each of Indiana’s 92 counties. These grants are helping community foundations grow their financial resources and further strengthen their ability to address their community’s highest-priority challenges and opportunities.
Since awarding its first community grants totaling $50,000 in 1997, the Scott County Community Foundation has awarded more than $7 million in scholarships and grants to support local students, nonprofits, and community initiatives. Through the generosity of Lilly Endowment, over $15 million has also been invested in Scott County through Foundation and community initiatives.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private foundation created in 1937 by J. K. Lilly 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 its founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion. While the Endowment funds programs throughout the United States on an invitational basis to support these causes, especially in the field of religion, it maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.
This matching grant opportunity is available through June 30, 2028. Donations may be made online at www.scottcountyfoundation.org or by mail to SCCF, PO Box 25; Scottsburg, IN 47170. For more information, call 812-752-2057, email info@scottcountyfoundation.org or stop in the office at 60 N. Main St., Scottsburg.
