OVERVIEW: The Ball Brothers Foundation supports arts, culture, humanities, education, environment, health, human services and public society benefit in East Central Indiana.
IP TAKE: The Ball Brothers Foundation has been a Muncie institution for a century. This accessible Indiana-specific funder offers multiple nonprofit grant opportunities and a straightforward online application process. It also provides a searchable database of past grants and access to its recent annual reports for transparency. Reach out to staff via the online contact form to discuss your project.
PROFILE: Established in 1926, the Ball Brothers Foundation (BBF) is a family foundation based in Muncie, Indiana. Five brothers established this foundation to pursue their family’s philanthropy. George Ball handled financial affairs for Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company, William Ball worked in sales for the company and Frank Ball served as the company’s president. Another brother, Lucius Ball, was a company stockholder and worked in the medical profession, while Edmund Ball was vice president and directed daily operations for the family company. The foundation is “dedicated to the stewardship legacy of the Ball brothers and to the pursuit of improving the quality of life in Muncie, Delaware County, East Central Indiana and Indiana through philanthropy and leadership.” BBF funds local efforts for arts, culture, humanities, education, environment, health, human services and public society.
Grants for Community Development
The Ball Brothers’ stated focus areas include Arts, Culture, & Humanities; Education; Environment; Health; Human Services; and Public Society Benefit. However, it has more specific interests and initiatives that it pursues within those six broad subject areas. These include downtown stabilization and renewal, early childhood education, emergency management, environmental recreation and preservation and workforce development.
In general, the foundation’s grantmaking can be classified in two categories:
General Grants fund project-specific requests, operating support, or a combination of the two.
Grants range from $5,000 to $100,000
Preliminary Application deadlines are February 15 and July 15
Full Proposals are due April 1 and September 1
Rapid Grants support immediate needs.
Grants are 5,000 or less.
Applications are accepted between February 1 and November 30 each year.
Successful applicants can expect to hear back within one or two weeks.
Look over the searchable database of past grants to get a better sense of the types of community projects the foundation supports.
The John W. and Janice B. Fisher Governance Award annually recognizes a nonprofit board member who has shown exceptional service to the citizens of Delaware County. The award is nomination only and includes a $10,000 grant to the board member’s organization.
The Fellows Program offers nonprofit and community leaders the opportunity to meet with the Ball Brothers Foundation to better understand how foundations work. The fellowship includes $15,000 in grants.
Grants for Arts and Culture
Some of the Ball Brothers Foundation’s largest grants have gone to arts and culture in the area. The foundation has given tens of millions to the Minnetrista Cultural Center, which is located on land where the Ball brothers once lived and where several of their homes still stand. Otherwise, museums have seen a lot of support, as have arts centers.
Previous grantees include Cornerstone Center for the Arts, Muncie Children’s Museum, Arts Place, The Academy of Model Aeronautics, Indiana Historical Society, and Conner Prairie Museum.
Grants for Public Health and Access
Ball Brothers supports health and healthcare organizations in the area, but not in the amounts that go to other issues. Optimus Primary is the largest recipient of health grants and the foundation has committed over $2.5 million to its programs in such areas as “recruitment, innovative training experiences, emphases on healthy lifestyles and disease prevention, and overall excellence in the provision of medical education.”
Other health grantees include IU Health Foundation, Open Door Health Services, Indiana University School of Medicine – Muncie, Meridian Health Services, American Red Cross of Indiana, Delaware County Health Department, and First Choice for Women.
Grants for K-12 Education
The majority of Ball Brothers’ support for education goes to K-12 schools and education services groups. Higher education does see some funding—Ivy Tech, Ball State University, and Purdue University in particular; however, support is not on the scale of primary and secondary schools.
Muncie Community Schools is the foundation’s largest education grant recipient and has been given over $3.6 million in funds. Ball Brothers partners with the school district to help “provide enhanced professional development for teachers, reimagine courses and curriculum, support extracurricular activities, and, more generally, provide support for the “margins of excellence” that taxpayer dollars cannot support.”
Other K-12 grantees include Daleville Community Schools, Muncie Boys and Girls Club, Liberty Perry Schools, Yorktown Community Schools, Wes-Del Community Schools, Delaware Community Schools, and Cowan Community Schools.
The foundation gives its Excellence in Teaching Award to an exceptional teacher in Delaware County each year. Winners receive a $20,500 grant to be split between the teacher’s school district, school, and classroom.
Important Grant Details
Grants range between about $5,000 and $100,000. The most common amount is $5,000. The foundation gave more than $10 million in grants in a recent year and held over $188 million in assets.
Grantmaking focuses on East Central Indiana, especially Muncie and the Delaware County area. Other counties of interest in Indiana are Blackford County, Grant County, Henry county, Jay County, Madison County and Randolph County.
This foundation accepts unsolicited preliminary applications from nonprofits for grants via its online application portal; however, it requires this initial step before considering a full proposal. Grantseekers should contact a foundation staff member to discuss their project first.
There are two general grant periods per year, with preliminary applications due on February 15 and July 15.
BFF accepts rapid grant proposals between February 1 and November 30.
Look over the searchable database of past grants to get a better sense of the types of projects the foundation supports.
Direct general questions to the staff at info@ballfdn.org or 765-741-5500.
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