Nonprofit Excellence Awards 2025

But Brian Crispin, Wheeler’s chief marketing and communications officer, will tell you that Wheeler is so much more.

LCFS provides the programs in collaboration with a host of community partners, including Community Hospital East, Indianapolis Public Schools and Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, and with funding from the United Way, Lilly Endowment Inc. and Central Indiana Community Foundation.

The expansion is both gratifying and sad.

Its mission is “to secure and manage resources to support programs that prepare youth for leadership and careers in the science, business and technology of agriculture.”

Teams must raise a minimum of $2,500 to participate. The winning team gets Republic Airways flight vouchers.

As president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Hancock County for almost 20 years, she said it’s been “so rewarding to contribute to a community that I love.”

The collaboration, which launched in 2024, will serve more than 1,700 students over four years across four partner schools—Lawrence Central High School, Lawrence North High School, Herron-Riverside High School and Irvington Preparatory Academy.

The Kicking the Stigma initiative has raised more than $31 million for mental-health awareness programs and to expand treatment and research.

From June 15-23, 2024, more than 285,000 people attended the trials, which served as the national championships in swimming for the United States and the qualifier for swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

And this June, Goodwill of Central & Southern Indiana and Goodwill Industries of Central Illinois announced plans to merge.

But Sides is still there, every Tuesday night during the school year, helping and motivating students.

Birge, who leads Cornerstone Cos. Inc., one of the nation’s most active medical office building developers, and Birge & Held, a real estate investment and management firm he founded, contributes more than $1.5 million each year to more than 70 nonprofits.

Over 30 years, Carrier has provided Habitat with 736 high-efficiency HVAC systems valued at nearly $5 million and more than $2.1 million in financial contributions.