The assets of the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment surged more than 47 percent in 2022, buoyed by the soaring stock price of the drugmaker Eli Lilly and Company, of which the foundation is the largest shareholder, Bloomberg reports.

Sales of Lilly’s popular weight-loss drug, Mounjaro, have led investors to drive up the company’s stock price by almost 60 percent since 2022. As of the end of 2023, assets of the foundation—which operates independent of the drugmaker—are estimated to be worth $60 billion, up from $40.8 billion in 2022. Its grantmaking increased 53 percent year over year, from $1.3 billion in 2022 to about $2 billion in 2023, John Seitz, founder of FoundationIQ, told Bloomberg.

Recipients of the endowment’s grantmaking have included Indiana-based organizations, which typically receive the majority of its funding, as well as religious groups. Since 2020, the charity has given more than $1 billion to a wide range of mainstream Christian causes around the country, from museums to seminaries and pastoral support, including nearly $500 million—or 38 percent of total grantmaking—in 2022.

Analysts caution that the weight-loss drug “craze” may yet be short lived and the near-term run-up in stock value would likely suffer should the market change. “It could all end in a second if Lilly’s share price gets killed,” Seitz told Bloomberg. “[However,] Lilly, if it keeps up like this, is going to be the biggest game in town.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Aslan Alphan)