INDIANAPOLIS — Trine University has received a $100,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to assist the university with strategic planning.
The grant is part of Charting the Future for Indiana’s Colleges and Universities,
a new initiative by the Lilly Endowment to help Indiana’s 38 higher education institutions
further develop strategies to strengthen their effectiveness and sustainability.
“Lilly Endowment has long been a generous supporter of education throughout the state
of Indiana, and we greatly appreciate this new initiative,” said Earl D. Brooks II,
Ph.D., Trine University president. “Though Trine University continues to experience
historic success and growth, we cannot rest on our laurels with the challenges facing
higher education today. We are excited and grateful for the assistance that the Charting
the Future initiative provides in meeting those challenges.”
Lilly Endowment is making $108.2 million in grants available to Indiana colleges and
universities throughout three phases of the Charting the Future initiative. The planning
grant Trine received is part of the first phase. In the second and third phases, Lilly
Endowment will provide grants to support strategies and programs likely to prepare
students for rewarding employment, especially in Indiana; enhance the viability of
higher educational institutions; and enable institutions to further their educational
missions more effectively in new or innovative ways.
“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 Ted Maple, Ph.D., 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.”
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.