Eli Lilly and Company Invests $2.5 Million to Launch The Mind Trust's Grow What Works Campaign

INDIANAPOLIS, May 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) and The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit that supports bold, new education reform, today announced the launch of The Mind Trust's Grow What Works campaign. Grow What Works seeks to raise and invest $18 million in the highest-impact education organizations working in Indianapolis, enabling them to serve more students and accelerate education reform. Lilly is investing $2.5 million in the Grow What Works campaign, the company's largest ever education-focused grant.

Since its founding in 2006, The Mind Trust has been strategically building a network of the nation's best education reform organizations in Indianapolis. Together, these organizations, led by visionary education entrepreneurs, are already working to transform public education in the city. Lilly believes that aggressively growing these organizations, as well as investing in new, innovative ideas and models through The Mind Trust's Grow What Works campaign represents the most promising strategy for the private sector to invest in change.

"We believe that providing access to an excellent education for all of our children is the key to our city's future," said John C. Lechleiter, Ph.D., Lilly chairman, president and chief executive officer. "Lilly has been impressed with the work of The Mind Trust.  It has amassed an impressive record of making strategic investments and has become a recognized model for leading education reform. We're honored to invest in the Grow What Works campaign, and we encourage other organizations to do the same. The Mind Trust is uniquely positioned to be an effective catalyst for education reform in Indianapolis."

The Grow What Works campaign will elevate Indianapolis in the national education reform conversation. "The islands of excellence that now exist in school districts have to become the norm," United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan noted when asked about the campaign. "We need new solutions that improve outcomes—and that can, and will, be used to serve hundreds of thousands of teachers and millions of students. Said simply, we need to invest in growing what works as schools, as districts, as states, and as a country. That's why I applaud private efforts to encourage and focus philanthropic investments like The Mind Trust's Grow What Works campaign."

To kick off the Grow What Works campaign, The Mind Trust is hosting a luncheon on May 5 at the JW Marriott Indianapolis featuring a keynote address by noted New York Times columnist David Brooks. Additional speakers will include Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, The Mind Trust board member and television journalist Jane Pauley, former Indianapolis Mayor and The Mind Trust's board chair Bart Peterson, and The Mind Trust's Founder and CEO David Harris.

The campaign has a fundraising goal of $18 million, of which $9 million already has been raised.

"To transform our schools, we need many pieces to come together to form a new dynamic in public education," said David Harris. "The Mind Trust is purposefully building an integrated network of entrepreneurial education ventures—a network whose collective impact will far exceed the sum of its parts. With Lilly's help, and through future investments from other community leaders, the Grow What Works campaign will lay the groundwork for lasting, positive change in public education."

The luncheon event is made possible through donations from sponsors, which include: Lilly Endowment Inc.; The Central Indiana Community Foundation; Indiana University Health; LDI Ltd., LLC; Indianapolis Power & Light Company; the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation; Ivy Tech Community College; Baker & Daniels LLP; Ice Miller LLP; the Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning at the University of Indianapolis; The National Bank of Indianapolis; Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP; Marian University; and Bingham McHale LLP.

For more information about The Mind Trust, please visit www.themindtrust.org. More information on the Grow What Works campaign is online at www.growwhatworks.org.

About The Mind Trust – Bold, new education reform

The Mind Trust is an Indianapolis-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to dramatically improve public education for underserved children by empowering education entrepreneurs to develop or expand transformative education initiatives. Through its Education Entrepreneur Fellowship and Mezzanine Fund, The Mind Trust finds the most promising and successful education reform initiatives in America, and supports their launch or replication in Indianapolis. The Mind Trust has made investments totaling over $5,000,000 to bring Teach For America, The  New Teacher Project, College Summit, Diploma Plus and Stand for Children to Indianapolis.  The Mind Trust has invested $2.7 million to incubate six new ventures, including Summer Advantage USA, Teach Plus, Seton Education Partners, Foster Ed, Global Citizen Year, and Youth Music Exchange. For more information about The Mind Trust, please visit www.themindtrust.org.

About Eli Lilly and Company

Lilly, a leading innovation-driven corporation is developing a growing portfolio of pharmaceutical products by applying the latest research from its own worldwide laboratories and from collaborations with eminent scientific organizations. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., Lilly provides answers – through medicines and information – for some of the world's most urgent medical needs. Additional information about Lilly is available at www.lilly.com. CR-LLY    

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SOURCE Eli Lilly and Company