Lilly Endowment Awards $7.5 Million to the Elizabeth Dole Foundation: Three-Year Grant Supports 14.3 Million Military and Veteran Caregivers
The Elizabeth Dole Foundation announced in Washington on October 27 that it has received a $7.5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to strengthen its capacity to serve military and veteran caregivers. Over three years, the grant will help more individuals identify as caregivers, connect with trusted peers in their communities, and receive services and support measured against improvements in their quality of life.
Military and veteran caregivers, the spouses, parents, siblings, family members and friends who care for wounded, ill or injured service members and veterans, now number 14.3 million in the United States. They sustain the health, independence and dignity of those they care for, yet too many carry that responsibility with limited recognition, support and financial security. Senator Elizabeth Dole founded the foundation in 2012 to serve them. Steve Schwab, the foundation's CEO, said too many caregivers still do not know that help exists or where to find it, and that Lilly Endowment made possible the research that first showed the nation who these caregivers are. The new grant, he said, lets the foundation build the organization caregivers need now: one that is easy to find, present in their communities and able to provide support services that help them navigate the roadblocks to care.
The investment will strengthen four connected areas of the foundation's work: expanding brand and digital reach so caregivers can connect with support wherever they begin looking; building community engagement through its national network of Dole Caregiver Fellows and alumni; modernizing technology and data to better understand caregivers' needs and measure improvements in their quality of life; and broadening its base of support so the gains last beyond the grant period. Ronni Kloth, Lilly Endowment's vice president for community development, said service members, veterans and their families are extremely resilient, though military service and the transition to civilian life often pose significant challenges, including housing, childcare, food insecurity, mental and physical health and employment, and that the Endowment is pleased to help organizations that provide crucial support.
The foundation enters this stage of growth with 14 years of research, programs, partnerships and policy leadership behind it. Since 2012 it has engaged nearly 22,000 caregivers through its programs and events, provided direct financial assistance to more than 1,500 individuals and trained more than 12,000 health care providers in caregiver-integrated care. Lilly Endowment has supported the foundation since its founding: its early funding made possible the RAND Corporation's first nationwide study of military and veteran caregivers, and it later funded RAND's 10-year update, released in 2024, and Mathematica's research on children and youth in military caregiving families. Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in Eli Lilly and Company; it is a separate entity from the company, based in Indianapolis, and supports community development, education and religion.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Elizabeth Dole 官方肖像（资料图，她于2012年创办以其名字命名的基金会）。照片：美国国会，公共领域（经 Wikimedia Commons） / Official portrait of Elizabeth Dole (file photo; she founded the foundation that bears her name in 2012). Photo: United States Congress, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Direct: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Elizabeth_Dole_official_photo.jpg
