Lilly Endowment Grants Millions to Junior Achievement

Junior Achievement of Central Indiana has been awarded two grants through Lilly Endowment Inc.’s. latest round of contributions to charitable organizations. One of the JA grants, valued at $5 million, is designed to help organizations benefiting children in central Indiana.

The sustainability grant will be used to fund an endowment and to invest in technology upgrades. The grant is one of 13 awarded by Lilly Endowment, totaling more than $54 million.

“The grant is designed to help Junior Achievement of Central Indiana build long-term financial strength and resiliency so that it can better weather unexpected and adverse funding changes,” said Ronni Kloth, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for community development. “The grant is not intended to fund ongoing operating support that is essential to meet the day-to-day needs of the children and youth they serve. In fact, we hope our grant helps Junior Achievement of Central Indiana attract additional support for this important work.”

JACI also received a separate grant of just over $1.3 million in the fall of 2019 to help with the expansion of career exploration programs for preschool through high school students. Some of those programs include JA BizTown and JA JobSpark, with are estimated to involve 40,000 central Indiana students this year.