Philanthropy Central

The Inspire Grant initially was, for the Foellinger Foundation of Fort Wayne, Indiana, an entirely new way of conducting grantmaking. The venture was undertaken as a way to commemorate the Foundation's 50th anniversary with something that, for our community, would be new and innovative—a forward-looking grant model as a celebration of our past.
Inspire Grants of up to $25,000 each were awarded to local nonprofits, with grant amounts totaling a half million dollars. The Inspire Grants were initially created as a one-time opportunity as part of the Foundation's anniversary, but it became clear quite quickly that these grants had significant potential to benefit not only the individual organizations but the broader nonprofit community.