Last month in a continued effort to feature nonprofits who request grant funding from Community Foundation, I wrote about Susie’s Place Child Advocacy Centers, and the response from readers was overwhelming. Like me, many of you were unaware of this organization and the impressive services they provide to Morgan County children which is exactly why I chose it as my August feature. Since then, I toured their Bloomington facility, and what I learned warrants an update.
All three locations of Susie’s Place – Avon, Bloomington, and Terre Haute – provide a child-friendly atmosphere where child victims and witnesses to a crime give their statements to a forensic interviewer. The interview is recorded, allowing law enforcement, department of child services, and prosecutors to watch the interview in real time, eliminating the need for multiple interviews. As we entered the Bloomington facility, we were shuttled through an employee door, to avoid a child in the lobby. It was an emergency intake which is frequent. As we explored the soothing office space, we met one of the forensic interviewers. Her 5-foot, petite stature paired with her warm smile and casual appearance in jeans and a t-shirt would put anyone at ease. She shared that it was a day to celebrate at the center, as a perpetrator of one of their victims was sentenced that morning to 105 years in prison for his abduction and brutal sexual assault of a Greene County 12-year-old. The California man had targeted several young victims online. This young girl thought she was sneaking out of her house to meet a boy that September night in 2024 but was then abducted by an adult who took her to Lawrence County where she was assaulted. The interviewer told me, “We celebrate the wins.”
That day I learned that unlike this case, most perpetrators are not strangers. Of the 1440 cases last year, only 14 perpetrators were unknown to their victims. 80% were sex crime victims, and 20% severe physical abuse victims or crime witnesses. The Susie’s Place Prevention Education team presented at 83 schools across 8 counties in the 2025-2026 school year, including 3,177 Martinsville and Monrovia students. As a result, 225 debriefs with these Morgan County students in follow-up to the education, resulted in 30 reports to the DCS hotline.
Indiana Senate Enrolled Act 355 mandated body safety education in every grade in every school in Indiana in 2017, but that mandate has never been funded – the reason why they need grant funding from CFMC and others.
Our tour included a walk-in clothing closet for kids to “shop” for new clothes, as most must leave their clothes at the facility for evidentiary purposes. Lastly, half of Susie’s Place Bloomington facility is occupied by their partner, IU Health, who provides not only medical examinations to collect evidence from child victims but also much needed well-checks that include the opportunity to discuss what has happened to their bodies.
Susie’s Place and 42 other nonprofits serving Morgan County applied for grant funding with Community Foundation last month. Our grant committee has spent the last few weeks thoroughly reviewing every application. Applications increased from 31 in 2025 to 43 in 2026, and the total dollars requested rose from $331,000 to over $666,000.
Thanks to several donors who of took advantage of GIFT VIII’s matching dollars last year, our grant budget increased from $73,000 in 2025 to $161,000 in 2026. Now thanks to the unprecedented timing of GIFT IX and the same $2 to $1 matching offer for unrestricted donations, we stand to grow our grant budget to an all-time high.
Here is how it works. GIFT is an acronym for Giving Indiana Funds For Tomorrow. Lilly Endowment offers a GIFT initiative every few years. GIFT VIII and IX offered matching dollars in both to triple any donation to our unrestricted account. This account funds our grants budget, allowing us to support organizations like Susie’s Place and the 42 others this year. These “Lilly dollars” remain in our endowment forever and are never spent. At the end of the third quarter, we calculate 4.5% of the average daily balance for the past three years, and this determines the grant budget for the following year. Simply put, the greater the balance, the greater the grant budget.
I am pleased to report we have completed the GIFT IX donation requirement of $750,000, and just last Friday, we received the $1.5 million dollars in matching funds from Lilly Endowment. Through your generous donations and these historic gifts from Lilly Endowment of $1 million in 2025 and another $1.5 million in 2026 position us to grant approximately $275,000 next year to nonprofits, schools, and other charitable organizations who desperately rely on our funding. This is a $200,000 increase in just two years! Thanks to all of you who helped us leverage these Lilly dollars, we can fund organizations like Susie’s Place and others who are fighting for our kids and our community.
