Disaster ReBuilders Receive $500,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to strengthen disaster recovery capacity

AMERICUS, Ga. — Fuller Center Disaster ReBuilders Inc. (FCDR) has received a $500,000 implementation grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Hope After the Storm: Capacity Building for Faith-Based Disaster Relief Organizations initiative.

The grant will support FCDR’s efforts to strengthen its capacity to serve communities affected by disasters by enhancing organizational infrastructure, expanding volunteer engagement, and improving systems that support long-term recovery efforts.

Faith-based organizations play a critical role in disaster response and recovery across the United States, providing essential services such as home repairs and rebuilding, volunteer mobilization, and ongoing support for families navigating the long-term recovery process. Through this initiative, Lilly Endowment Inc. is investing in organizations like FCDR to help expand and sustain these vital efforts.

FCDR will use the grant to implement a range of capacity-building initiatives, including efforts to:
• strengthen systems for recruiting, training, and supporting volunteers who serve on rebuilding projects
• enhance technology to improve tracking of projects, and resources across multiple disaster recovery sites
• increase the organization’s ability to deploy and sustain rebuilding efforts in disaster-affected areas across the United States

Fuller Center Disaster ReBuilders is a faith-driven nonprofit organization dedicated to long-term disaster recovery. The organization works to rebuild homes for uninsured and underinsured families affected by natural disasters, with a focus on serving low-income homeowners. Through the use of volunteer labor and donated resources, FCDR partners with local communities to repair and rebuild homes, helping families regain safe, stable housing and a path forward after disaster.

About Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts of stock remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.