Lilly Endowment watches assets shrink

Lilly Endowment watches assets shrink: "Lilly Endowment watches assets shrink


By John Strauss
john.strauss@indystar.com
April 13, 2005


The Lilly Endowment, the state's largest charitable foundation that contributed $285 million to Indiana projects last year, saw its asset value shrink 20 percent in 2004 as the price of its Eli Lilly and Co. stock sagged.
Total grants paid by the foundation also dropped for the third year in a row, down 7.5 percent from the year before, according to the endowment's 2004 annual report, released Wednesday.
With 99.9 percent of its assets in Lilly stock, the value of the endowment's assets rise and fall in lockstep with the company's trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Assets last year totaled nearly $8.6 billion, down from a peak of $15.8 billion in 1998."