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IU Indy to break ground on $110M arena named for late civic leader Jim Morris
The James T. Morris Arena honors the civic leader and philanthropist who died last year at 81.
The James T. Morris Arena honors the civic leader and philanthropist who died last year at 81.
The gift is the largest grant that Indiana University has ever received in support of research and development. IU President Pamela Whitten said the funding will help “change the very landscape of our capital city and state.”
The goal is to double the community college’s early-childhood education programs by 2027, resulting in nearly 2,000 more graduates each year.
Indianapolis philanthropic leader Clay Robbins is the 19th person to receive the award, meant to honor outstanding community contributions.
The Lilly Endowment is writing a flurry of big checks again and recently sold more than $50 million worth of stock in namesake drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. to fund the gifts, many of them to Indiana organizations.
Progress House, about a mile east of downtown, serves about 300 people a year for substance use disorder.
The gift will fund operations at Gregory S. Fehribach Center at Eskenazi Health for the next five years and also create an endowment for future funding.
The park foundation described the gift on Monday as the largest grant in history benefiting the U.S.’s national parks. The money will be used to address the needs of the country’s more than 400 national park sites.
The Indianapolis-based philanthropic foundation said Thursday that more than 80 public, private and charter school districts and networks representing more than 300 schools in Marion County are eligible to apply for grants.
The five-year implementation grants range from $12.1 million to $32 million each, with DePauw University in Greencastle landing the largest grant.
Three local legal aid organizations received grants ranging from $2.5 million to $7.5 million.
The design includes 80-foot rings with programmable lighting that encircle the bridge, plazas that provide spaces for people to gather and view public art, and distinctive plantings and other horticultural features.
EmployIndy, the workforce development organization for Marion County, said the contribution will help the organization sustain and improve it’s youth employment system.
In recent weeks, the Indianapolis-based philanthropy has been unveiling a flurry of gifts at the $100 million level or higher.
The gift announced Thursday will go toward a pooled endowment for the 37 historically Black colleges and universities that form UNCF’s membership, with the goal of boosting the schools’ long-term financial stability.
Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. is awarding $100 million to the Purdue Research Foundation, with half the money going toward construction of the Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. School of Business building on the West Lafayette campus and the rest to support the Purdue Computes initiative.
The grant replenishes United Way of Central Indiana’s Capital Projects Fund, which helps not-for-profits purchase, build, upgrade or expand their facilities to better serve their clients.
The grants range from $5.8 million to $35 million each, with Ball State University in Muncie landing the largest grant.
The recipient colleges and universities in Indiana will help new teachers strengthen their use of methods aligned with the Science of Reading, a vast body of research related to how children learn to read.
The Indianapolis-based philanthropy giant says the grants are intended to help immigrants acclimate to life in central Indiana and make progress toward self-sufficiency.