Building upon a previous gift, funds will support the sustainability of Scouting programs for the benefit of youth across the state
A $5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to the Scouting America Foundation will strengthen the prevalence, durability, and accessibility of high-quality Scouting programs across the State of Indiana, ensuring that more youth benefit from the values-based leadership training and character development that Scouting provides.
During a three-year period from 2026 to 2029, funds will support six Indiana councils that currently engage approximately 20,000 youth in traditional Scouting programs: Crossroads of America Council in Indianapolis; Hoosier Trails Council in Bloomington; Anthony Wayne Area Council in Fort Wayne; Buffalo Trace Council in Evansville; LaSalle Council in South Bend; and Sagamore Council in Kokomo.
The grant builds upon a previous commitment to these councils from Lilly Endowment and will enhance the councils’ abilities to grow staffing and organizational capacity to strengthen youth program delivery; expand program delivery in schools, community sites, and partner organizations; reduce financial barriers to Scouting programs for youth and families; and enhance statewide coordination, evaluation, and shared learning.
“We appreciate Lilly Endowment’s support for sustaining growth while strengthening the local capacity required to support it over time, ensuring more youth can benefit from Scouting’s programs in a consistent and durable way,” said Scouting America’s president and chief scout executive Roger Krone. “Lilly Endowment’s investment will help expand access to high-quality programs across the State of Indiana that build character, leadership, and resilience – particularly for youth who may not otherwise have these opportunities.”
A Premier Partnership
Including this grant, Lilly Endowment has committed $45 million to Scouting America in the last five years, supporting both Indiana youth and national initiatives that strengthen character development and program quality. Their support of Scouting America for Indiana councils began with a $10 million grant in 2022 through Lilly Endowment’s Strengthening Youth Programs in Indiana (SYPI) initiative, which enabled the six councils to improve youth development infrastructure statewide and ultimately serve more than 50,000 youth.
A major focus was on building or strengthening community partnerships with more than 100 schools and community organizations to deliver in-school, after-school, summer, and outdoor Scouting programs. Prior to the initial grant, targeted delivery models like these were limited in scale across the state, serving approximately 2,400 youth. Indiana council affiliates have now scaled these programs to reach a broad and diverse population of more than 5,000 youth annually.
“With schools focused on meeting core curriculum standards, our partnership provided youth a critical enrichment in character building, citizenship development, leadership growth, and personal fitness that they might not otherwise receive,” said Alan Parks, scout executive and CEO of Sagamore Council.
Targeted delivery models were especially successful at reaching underserved communities and created meaningful entry points into Scouting. The Buffalo Trace Council brought Scouting programs to hundreds of underserved children in Southwest Indiana through Scoutreach, for example, while the Anthony Wayne Area Council improved its representation of multicultural youth by 21%. “These youth developed skills they had little opportunity to practice without Scouting, including teamwork and problem-solving as well as leadership and the ability to overcome adversity,” said John Gliot, former scout executive and CEO of Anthony Wayne Council.
Workforce readiness was another key focus under the initial grant. By expanding its STEM Scouts Initiative for youth ages 6 to 10, the Hoosier Trails Council introduced STEM educational programming to over 1,100 youth at 30 locations across South-Central Indiana through after-school programs and partnering organizations.
“We provided a weekly curriculum and fun-filled activity box focused on a STEM subject for the partner agencies to deliver in one-hour blocks,” said Randy Saunders, scout executive and CEO of Hoosier Trails Council. “While not every youth can become a Scout in a traditional sense, these STEM programs provided a taste of Scouting values to youth in after-school programs and helped fill a core programming need for after-school administrators.”
Sustaining Program Growth
As councils continue expanding access across Indiana, funds from the newly awarded
$5 million grant will support aligning the program growth already achieved with durable funding models, ensuring that expansion is supported by long-term sustainability. More than half of grant funding will go toward staffing local council positions in youth recruitment, outreach programs, development, and marketing or partnership areas.
“Success for us will be defined by hiring key staff members who will create sustainable models of operations that relate to their position,” said John Cary, scout executive and CEO of Crossroads of America Council. “For example, we’ll hire development officers who will raise funds for both their positions and that of the overall council operations, as well as a new program director whose primary responsibility is to address the retention of Scouts in our traditional programs, resulting in a positive impact experience for our council.”
Other grant funds will support program delivery costs such as the supplies, curriculum materials, and volunteer training resources required for councils to deliver programming in schools, community centers, and partner organizations; participant access, such as membership registration assistance, first-year program participation support, camp scholarships, and materials and supplies for participants in need; and National Council efforts to coordinate statewide collaboration among councils and monitor and evaluate program outcomes.
The need for consistent access to high-quality youth programs remains significant across Indiana, where 26% of working families face financial instability and 16% of youth live below the poverty line. Lilly Endowment support will promote sustained access to high-quality programs like Scouting during a time when workforce readiness, civic engagement, and youth development are increasingly critical to the state’s future. It will also serve to deepen engagement with multicultural youth and new populations across Indiana.
“We already saw that the localized expansion within our council served as an important workforce readiness and community-building initiative,” said James Hulgan, scout executive and CEO of LaSalle Council. “Through a standardized evaluation framework, results showed that participating youth demonstrated substantial personal growth in core competencies such as teamwork, personal accountability, and essential employability skills. This progress strengthens the social fabric of our communities and establishes a sustainable pipeline of community-minded future leaders.”
Hulgan also noted that the grants from Lilly Endowment represent a strong example of what can be achieved through a multi-council collaboration strategy and partnership with the National Council. “This collaborative methodology facilitates the sharing of best practices, allowing successful program models to be adapted and scaled across council borders, which minimizes administrative overhead and maximizes funding efficiency,” he said. “Partnering with the National Council complements this regional cooperation by providing a structural foundation, resources, and a process whereby local innovations can be shared nationally, helping to shape and refine the broader scouting movement across the country.”
As the councils look to build and sustain progress with these new grant funds, they expressed deep appreciation for Lilly Endowment’s support. “Their generosity has opened doors for hundreds of young people across our communities, giving them opportunities to develop character, leadership, service, and resilience through Scouting,” said Grant Reigelman, scout executive and CEO of Buffalo Trace Council. “We sincerely thank Lilly Endowment for its vision and its confidence in our mission. The impact of this investment will continue to strengthen youth, families, and communities across Indiana for many years to come.”
About Scouting America
Scouting America provides the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training, which helps young people be “Prepared. For Life.®” Scouting America welcomes all of America’s youth into its programs. Our goal is to give them fantastic experiences in the outdoors, and elsewhere, where they can grow with us in a safe environment. More than 130 million Americans have been through our programs since our founding, and nearly 1 million youth are served by 477,000 dedicated adult volunteers in local councils throughout the country. To learn more about Scouting America’s mission, or to sign your child up for Scouting, visit www.BeAScout.org.
About the Lilly Endowment
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private foundation created in 1937 by J. K. Lilly 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 its founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion. Although the Endowment funds programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion, it maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.
