Edmund F and Virginia B Ball Foundation
ActiveMutual & Membership BenefitFunds Individuals
About Edmund F and Virginia B Ball Foundation
The Edmund F and Virginia B Ball Foundation makes a small number of very large, capital-focused grants aimed at community infrastructure and experiential education. Their recent giving emphasizes facility purchases and renovations for cultural, recreational and environmental education organizations, with a mix of hometown (Muncie YMCA) and regional beneficiaries. They favor tangible, place-based investments—buildings, capital campaigns, and program-enabling assets—over many small operating grants.
Focus Areas
Capital support for community cultural centers (building purchase and performance venues)Facility and capital campaign funding for local youth recreation and fitness (YMCA campus and camp renovations)Great Lakes experiential/environmental education (schoolship programs and property acquisition)Community infrastructure investments in Midwestern nonprofits
Who They Fund
students and scholars (scholarship recipients, Ocean Science Scholars)youth and school groups (schoolship program, camp participants)local community / general public (family concert series, broader community programs)
About Edmund F and Virginia B Ball Foundation
A $2,035,000 grant to Leelanau Community Cultural Center for a building purchase and performance fund shows the Edmund F and Virginia B Ball Foundation Inc. as a capital-oriented funder. Their recent giving favors large, place-based investments that change physical assets: land, buildings, renovations, endowments, and program-enabling property. The pattern reaches across cultural, environmental, and youth-serving organizations, with repeated support for a small set of institutions rather than a broad spread of one-time awards. That approach appears in several multi-year relationships. Muncie YMCA received consecutive $500,000 grants for capital campaign and Camp Crosley renovations in 2023, 2024, and 2025. Ball State University Fdn was funded for the V.B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry in both 2023 and 2024, and Central Caribbean Marine Institute received repeated support for Reefs Go Live and the Ocean Science Scholars program. The foundation also backs arts and community infrastructure through Minnetrista Cultural Fdn, Cornerstone Center for the Arts, and Interlochen Center for the Arts. The result is a portfolio centered on tangible facilities and long-horizon assets more than short operating grants.
What Edmund F and Virginia B Ball Foundation Funds
In cultural and arts work, the foundation has backed building-level and program-specific support. Leelanau Community Cultural Center received $2,035,000 for a building purchase and performance fund, while Interlochen Center for the Arts received $100,000 for creative writing support. Environmental and outdoor projects are another clear thread. Traverse Area Recreation and Transport received $250,000 for the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, and Leelanau Conservancy received $200,000 for expansion of the Palmer Woods 1000-acre project. Education-related grants also appear in their giving. Central Caribbean Marine Institute was funded $173,599 for Reefs Go Live and the Ocean Science Scholars program, and Indiana Youth Institute received $40,000 for the Virginia B. Ball Library. Community arts infrastructure in Indiana shows up through Cornerstone Center for the Arts, which received support for staffing and utilities.
How Edmund F and Virginia B Ball Foundation Gives
Typical grant size is large: the 25th percentile is $33,750, the median is $100,000, and the 75th percentile is $202,812. The recent record shows repeated awards to the same organizations across 2023, 2024, and 2025, including multi-year support for capital campaigns, endowments, and program assets. The foundation accepts unsolicited applications through its General Grant Program and describes annual grantmaking with a required one-page final narrative report and final accounting by February 1. It funds individuals as well as organizations.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$3.4M
Total Assets
$16.5M
Total Revenue
$1.6M
Total Expenses
$3.8M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $34K and $203K, with a median of $100K.
25th Percentile
$34K
Median
$100K
75th Percentile
$203K
Geographic Reach
Regional3 states funded
About 38% of grants go to recipients in MI.
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
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