Wabash Valley Community Foundation gives $4.6 million to push stalled projects forward in three Indiana counties
The Terre Haute foundation announced its Partners for Progress grants on Sept. 23. They pay for playgrounds, trails, a rural clinic, a museum floor and other projects in Clay, Sullivan and Vigo counties, several of them with matching or challenge grants attached.
Terre Haute. The Wabash Valley Community Foundation, based in Terre Haute, Ind., announced on Sept. 23 more than $4.6 million in grants for projects in Clay, Sullivan and Vigo counties, through an initiative it calls Partners for Progress. Beth Tevlin, its president and chief executive, told WTHI-TV it was the largest single announcement of grants the foundation has made.
The initiative was designed to move community projects forward, the foundation said, particularly ones that had stalled, been scaled back or faced funding gaps that made completion difficult. Not every recipient is a nonprofit: the list includes the cities of Terre Haute and Brazil, Harrison Township, the Terre Haute Parks Department, the Vigo County School Corporation and the county-run Sullivan County Park and Lake.
Where the money goes
In Vigo County, over $2.2 million goes to projects such as a $500,000 city trail along Thompson Ditch in Terre Haute and a $420,000 water slide at Deming Park Pool. Chances and Services for Youth receives $355,000 for a playground at its east side Early Learning Center, and the Sheldon Swope Art Museum $230,000 to finish a third floor event and education space, the last part of a 14-year capital campaign. Anthony Dinkel, its executive director, told WTHI-TV that when he was hired a year ago, the museum did not think that floor would be finished because of costs.
In Sullivan County, nearly $974,000 will support seven projects, among them $200,000 toward a permanent clinic of Sullivan County Community Hospital in Dugger, which the foundation calls a rural health desert, and $100,000 for Merom Camp and Retreat Center to restore a historic entry of its College Hall. Clay County's $975,000 goes to eight projects, most of them for recreation, such as renovations at the Clay Youth Baseball League's ballpark in Brazil.
Matching and challenge grants
Some awards carry a second grant tied to money raised elsewhere. The YMCA of the Wabash Valley receives $92,000 for its Clay County facility and a separate $500,000 challenge grant, matched dollar for dollar, toward the capital campaign for its Vigo County facility. The baseball league's $200,000 comes with a $300,000 challenge grant on the same terms. Brown Baggers, the Humane Society of Sullivan County, Merom Camp and Retreat Center and Ruth House each receive a separate matching grant of $35,000 to $60,000.
The foundation's regular competitive grants in Vigo County, paused in 2025, now run in four cycles a year, one each for education, health and human services, arts and culture, and community development.
“In some cases, these are projects that have been in development for some time. In others, the Community Foundation’s support helps close a funding gap and allows a project to reach completion.”
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