As part of its continued philanthropy with local communities, Lilly is giving nearly $4 million to the Community Foundation of Elkhart County. to help finish a second phase for the Tolson community center.
The donation comes as Lilly Endowment is now on the eighth installment of its Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow — or GIFT — initiative.
Lilly is giving $3.75 million to the community foundation in total. That gift, however, is contingent on a series of matching grants, meaning that to earn that full amount, the community foundation will be raising over $2 million on its own.
Community foundation president Pete McCown said around $2 million of that total will go toward putting together an outdoor recreation area at the Tolson Center for Excellence.
“The park improvements include an artificial turf, a lit-like stadium soccer field, outdoor basketball courts and a destination playground. And the total cost of that was about $3 million,” McCown said.
Those outside elements were originally going to be part of the first phase of construction at Tolson, but rising costs made planners scale back that original project.
The rest of the money raised will go toward the community foundation’s unrestricted endowment.
Lilly launched its eighth GIFT initiative last year and has pledged $210 million for it in total. McCown said the Elkhart community foundation also received funds in 2018 and 2013 before that.
