The Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment has announced 21 grants totaling more than $20 million in support of theological schools across the United States and Canada.

Grants ranging from $690,000 to $1 million were awarded as part of an expanded second phase of the endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow initiative. Launched in January 2021 to strengthen the leadership capacity of pastors and congregational lay leaders and help sustain the vitality of Christian congregations, the initiative awarded a first round of phase-two grants totaling more than $82 million in December 2021.

The grants will enable recipient schools to implement programs that strengthen connections with churches, better prepare graduates to serve in increasingly diverse ministry settings, enhance fundraising, and help make schools’ programs more affordable and accessible to students—especially for students from communities of color. Among the latest grantees are several historically Black theological institutions, a theological school serving Korean American Christians, a Spanish-language seminary in Puerto Rico, and a theological school in Canada that prepares pastoral leaders to serve Indigenous Christian communities.

“Lilly Endowment was so pleased with the response from theological schools that we added more funds [and] invited several schools that submitted highly promising proposals to resubmit their second-phase implementation grant applications,” said Lilly Endowment vice president for religion Christopher L. Coble. “We believe these new grants will expand the impact of the initiative to help theological schools serve an even broader variety of Christian congregations.”

For a complete list of grant recipients, see the Lilly Endowment website.

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