N. Clay Robbins
In the past year, giving at Indiana's Lilly Endowment Inc., long led by chairman and CEO N. Clay Robbins, has gone into overdrive.
Under Robbins' direction, the nation's second-largest private foundation, with more than $62 billion in assets, awarded a stunning string of nine-figure grants. Among them: $100 million to the United Negro College Fund; $100 million to the National Park Foundation; $100 million to Purdue University; $138 million to establish a biosciences business accelerator program at Indiana University, $250 million to the Indiana Economic Development Corporation to support a statewide effort to attract and launch businesses; and $600 million for grants to teachers and schools across Marion County with innovative approaches to improving student achievement.
All told, the foundation awarded more than $2.5 billion last year, focused mainly on public works projects, education, and Christian institutions—a striking jump from $1.7 billion in grants approved in 2023 and a five-fold increase from 2018. At the center of it all is Robbins, who started at the foundation in 1993 and became CEO in 2012. But his affiliation goes back much farther: his education at Wabash College, where he majored in religion, was paid for by a Lilly Endowment scholarship. In November, his longevity and contributions to the community won Robbins the state's highest honor, the Sachem Award, with Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb calling him "a transformational leader" and an "exemplary Hoosier."
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