Eli Lilly Grants 2026: Lilly Foundation Giving Guide

Eli Lilly grants open now: 6 routes checked November 12, 2026

Grantsights checked 6 Lilly giving routes on November 12, 2026, and none of the Foundation's competitive routes is taking applications today.

Recently closed: the Open Call 2026 pre-application window (June to July 3, 2026). The guidelines say invited full applications ran in August, decisions followed from August to October, and awards are announced in November 2026, with funding starting January 2027. The spring 2026 cycle that came before it has also concluded.

Our honest read: this foundation is worth a serious look for two kinds of applicants only, an Indianapolis group with a STEM, workforce or housing program, or a U.S. global health charity with a chronic-disease project abroad. Everyone else is outside the published focus areas.

The Lilly Foundation is not Lilly Endowment

Two Indianapolis funders carry the Lilly name, and 1 of the most common mistakes in grant searches is mixing them up. The Eli Lilly and Company Foundation was established in 1968 and is supported by donations from Eli Lilly and Company, according to the Lilly Foundation page on lilly.com. It files a 990-PF under EIN 35-6202479. Lilly Endowment Inc. was created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons through gifts of company stock, and its About page says it's a separate entity from the company with its own board, staff and location.

The difference matters for your application. The Endowment runs its own programs in community development, education and religion; our Lilly Endowment grants guide covers its invitation-heavy process and its Indiana focus. The Lilly Foundation is a corporate foundation with a narrower set of priorities and its own portal. A proposal sent to the wrong one won't be forwarded.

Two more Lilly names cause confusion. The Lilly Grant Office is part of the company and handles independent grants tied to patient care and education for health professionals; lilly.com says it backs independent projects that "promote excellence in patient care" and inform health professionals and patient advocacy groups. Grantsights couldn't load grantoffice.lilly.com on November 12, 2026 (the site refused automated requests), so this guide doesn't restate its rules. The Lilly Cares Foundation is a separate patient assistance charity that helps eligible patients get Lilly medicines; it isn't a grant source for organizations.

Who can apply: 6 eligibility rules from the 2026 guidelines

The Open Call 2026 Program Guidelines, a 10-page PDF linked from the Lilly Foundation page and checked November 12, 2026, set 6 minimum rules. An applicant must:

1. Be a 501(c)(3) organization classified as a public charity under section 509(a)(1) or 509(a)(2), or a Type I or Type II supporting organization under 509(a)(3). Type III supporting organizations and private foundations don't qualify. The IRS explains the difference between the three types on its supporting organizations page (opens in a new tab).
2. Appear on the IRS Publication 78 list of organizations eligible for deductible gifts. The IRS posts that list as a download on its exempt organization bulk data page (opens in a new tab); a red flag before you apply is an organization registered under a "doing business as" name, which the IRS says won't appear in the file.
3. Have operated, with 501(c)(3) and public charity status, for at least 2 years.
4. Be a nonprofit corporation organized in a U.S. state.
5. Keep any grant-funded activity from benefiting Lilly, including anything that would prescribe, recommend, buy, pay for or otherwise support Lilly's products.
6. If it's a fiscal sponsor, apply in its own name and hold a formal agreement giving it full control of the money.

What the Foundation won't fund: general overhead that isn't tied directly to the project, and any advocacy, lobbying or attempt to influence legislation. Grantees must certify that their application included none of it.

Where the money can go: Global Health is the only focus area open outside Indiana. It covers countries the World Bank classes as low- or lower-middle-income, plus U.S. communities with limited access to health services, and the guidelines give priority to cardiometabolic health. K-12 STEM Education and Economic Mobility are limited to Marion County, Indiana. A STEM charity in Ohio or a housing nonprofit in Fort Wayne doesn't fit, however strong its program.

Who actually gets Lilly Foundation grants

Grantsights analysis of the 70 non-matching grants on the 2024 return found $15,797,956 paid to 64 organizations, with a median grant of $130,000 and a range from $5,000 to $1,000,000. Only 4 grants were under $25,000. This isn't a funder of small checks.

The 3 grants of $1 million went to the Indianapolis Foundation for work on homelessness in Indianapolis, the International School of Indiana for operating support, and the U.S. Fund for UNICEF for the Health4Life multi-partner trust fund. Indiana University received 3 grants worth $1,780,177 for AMPATH cancer screening and chronic disease work in Kenya, Nepal and Ghana, and Trustees of Indiana University received $500,000 more for a project that applies global health lessons in Indiana.

Where the money went by state

Indiana took 77% of the dollars. Several of the out-of-state addresses belong to national or global groups whose grants paid for Indianapolis or overseas work: Howard University's $500,000 grant was for a Center of Excellence for health education, which the Foundation's website places in Indianapolis, and UNICEF's grant paid for programs abroad.

Program mix

The return gives a purpose line for each grant, so the mix can be read directly. Grantsights grouped the 70 grants by purpose:

For example, the Indianapolis Public Schools Education Foundation received $709,500 in 2024 for STEM access, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis received $600,000 for a girls-in-STEM exhibit program, and the Pacers Foundation received $217,220 for NBA Math Hoops. Smaller Marion County grants show the floor: The Oaks Academy received $25,000 for science lab equipment, Marian University received $20,000 for an engineering summer camp, and Exploradoor received $30,000 for educational programs. One organization outside Indiana, Legends Do Live in Texas, received a $50,000 operating grant.

The 2023 comparison and repeat grantees

According to our analysis of the 2023 return, it lists 96 payments worth $25,980,906. After the same exclusions (23 matching lines worth $13,067,620), 73 grants worth $12,913,286 remain, with a median of $125,000 and 64 of them in Indiana. So the Foundation's own program grants grew about 22% from 2023 to 2024 while matching stayed near $13 million.

Repeat funding is the norm. 35 of the 64 organizations paid in 2024 were also paid in 2023, and they received $10,152,956, about 64% of 2024's program dollars. Teach For America Indianapolis, The Mind Trust, Ivy Tech Foundation, Center for Leadership Development and Girls Inc. of Indianapolis all appear both years.

What the Lilly Foundation committed in 2025

The Foundation's 2026 Grantee Impact Report, published on lilly.com, lists $48,327,000 in grants committed during 2025. Commitments are the full value of grants approved that year, including multi-year awards, so they don't match a single year's payments on the 990-PF.

According to the Grantee Impact Report, the biggest 2025 commitments were $5,500,000 to the Indianapolis Public Schools Education Foundation for middle school STEM programs, $3,500,000 to UNICEF USA for child health and chronic disease work in Rwanda and Sierra Leone, $3,300,000 to Indiana University for AMPATH chronic disease clinics in Kenya, and $3,000,000 to Fathers and Families Resource Research Center for its Strong Fathers program. The report says matching gifts made up 36% of 2025 commitments.

The spring 2026 awards on the Lilly Foundation page show the same pattern. Partners in Health received $2,500,000 for cardiometabolic disease care in Malawi, Sierra Leone and Rwanda; PATH and Indiana University Foundation each received $2,000,000; and Marion County awards included $600,000 to EmployIndy, $500,000 each to Elevate Indianapolis and the Greater Indianapolis Multi-Faith Alliance, $300,000 to TeenWorks and $60,000 to Marian University. The page adds that $1,570,000 went in general operating support grants to 10 organizations that cycle, an average of $157,000 each.

How to apply for Eli Lilly grants, step by step

The 2026 Program Guidelines describe 7 steps, checked November 12, 2026. Use them to get ready for the 2027 call, since the guidelines say Lilly is moving to a single annual open call starting in 2027.

1. Confirm your IRS status. Check that your organization appears on the Publication 78 list under its legal name and that your determination letter says 509(a)(1), 509(a)(2), or Type I or II supporting organization.
2. Register with the Blackbaud Verified Network. The FAQs say to do this before applying; registration is free and feeds the GrantsConnect portal.
3. Pick one focus area and write measurable outcomes. The Foundation scores alignment with its focus areas and an impact framework of reach, capacity building, sustainability, new approaches, and outcomes.
4. Submit a pre-application in Blackbaud GrantsConnect when the window opens. Organizations may send no more than 2 per cycle. The 2026 window opened in June and closed July 3.
5. Wait for an invitation. The full application is by invitation only; in 2026, invitations went out in late July.
6. Complete the full application, with goals, metrics, timeline and budget. Templates can be downloaded from GrantsConnect to draft offline. The 2026 window ran from early to mid-August.
7. Set up a Bill.com vendor account if funded. Lilly pays grants electronically through Bill.com, or by mailed check if you don't. Multi-year grants (up to 3 years) are paid annually, and grantees file annual reports in GrantsConnect.

Common mistake: asking for general operating money through the open call. The guidelines say the Foundation funds projects and only the overhead tied directly to them. Operating support grants do exist, but the Foundation chooses those recipients itself.

What the Lilly Foundation's Pages Don't Tell You

Grantsights checked the Lilly Foundation's web pages and guidelines against its 2023 and 2024 returns, and 6 things stood out.

1. The tax return still says invitation only. On both the 2023 and 2024 returns, the Foundation checked the Part XIV box saying it "only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations and does not accept unsolicited requests." The open call is newer than those filings. It's real, but it runs once a year, and outside that window the return's description is closer to how the Foundation works.

2. Almost half the money isn't open to anyone. Employee matching took $13.3 million of the $29.1 million paid in 2024 and $17.4 million of the $48.3 million committed in 2025. Lilly's Improving Lives and Communities page says Lilly has backed United Way for over 100 years, and that employee and retiree gifts plus Foundation matches total more than $300 million. Don't underestimate how much of the headline number is matching.

3. Indianapolis comes first for 2 of the 3 focus areas. K-12 STEM and Economic Mobility grants are limited to Marion County. Outside Indianapolis, the realistic route is the global health area, and it favors large organizations: the smallest spring 2026 award for work abroad was $250,000.

4. Website amounts and return amounts differ. The Foundation's site lists a $2,000,000 spring 2024 grant to the Indianapolis Foundation for homelessness work, while the 2024 return shows $1,000,000 paid to it for that purpose. Website figures are commitments; the 990-PF shows cash paid that year. Size your ask from the return, and expect multi-year grants to be paid in pieces.

5. Repeat grantees take most of the dollars. About 64% of 2024's program dollars went to organizations also paid in 2023. A first-time applicant is competing with groups that have multi-year relationships.

6. There's no published grant range. The FAQs tell applicants to study past awards instead. On the 2024 return, only 10 of 70 grants were under $50,000, so a request for $10,000 would sit well below the Foundation's usual size.

Federal and other routes for health and STEM nonprofits

The Lilly Foundation paid $15.8 million in non-matching grants in 2024 and took applications once in 2026, so most health and education groups need other sources too. Three better-fitting routes, depending on what you do:

Indiana and Indianapolis groups: our Indiana grants guide and Indianapolis grants guide cover state programs, community foundations and local funders. Health providers in the state can also use Indiana healthcare grants.

STEM and youth programs: grants for STEM education programs lists corporate and federal funders that take applications from outside Marion County.

Health nonprofits: grants for health nonprofits and the healthcare grants guide cover federal and foundation money, and diabetes prevention program grants fits groups doing cardiometabolic work in the U.S.

Where to look if the Lilly Foundation isn't a fit

Other funders worth comparing: Lilly Endowment is the obvious next stop for Indiana organizations, since it funds community development and education in the state under its own rules and calendar. For chronic disease and child health work in low-income countries, the Gates Foundation grants guide explains how that much larger global health funder picks its partners. Corporate grants for nonprofits lists other company foundations, many with open cycles and smaller grant sizes than Lilly's.

Grantsights tools: the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation funder page summarizes its 990-PF grant records for 2023 and 2024. Grantsights' health funder lists group private foundations that gave to health causes by state, built from their own 990-PF filings, and you can preview your state free.

How Grantsights Checked This Guide

Grantsights checked 7 Lilly pages and documents and 2 returns on November 12, 2026. The 2024 return's header lists the Foundation at PO Box 80007, Indianapolis, under EIN 35-6202479.

Anyone can read the Foundation's grant list, since private foundations must file it publicly. According to IRS rules on its private foundation annual return (opens in a new tab) page, every private foundation files Form 990-PF by the 15th day of the 5th month after its year ends. The Foundation's 2024 return was submitted on November 17, 2025, after extensions, which is why the newest itemized list on ProPublica is for 2024. To find Part XIV on any foundation's return yourself, use our guide to reading a 990-PF.

Sources

• Eli Lilly and Company: Lilly Foundation (opens in a new tab)
• Lilly Foundation: Open Call 2026 Program Guidelines and FAQs (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• Lilly Foundation: 2026 Grantee Impact Report (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• Eli Lilly and Company: Improving Lives and Communities (opens in a new tab)
• Eli Lilly and Company: Lilly Grant Office (opens in a new tab)
• Lilly Endowment: About (opens in a new tab)
• ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer: Eli Lilly and Company Foundation filings (opens in a new tab)
• IRS: Supporting Organizations, Requirements and Types (opens in a new tab)
• IRS: Tax Exempt Organization Search Bulk Data Downloads (Publication 78 data) (opens in a new tab)
• IRS: Private Foundation Annual Return (opens in a new tab)