Indianapolis is again becoming a laboratory for the study of religion in America -- this time about the way faith affects charity and other forms of philanthropy.
Today, Indiana University officials will announce the creation of the Lake Family Institute on Faith and Giving. Headquartered at the university's Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, the institute will become the nation's first center for academic research on how religious beliefs affect the way people give to others.
"We know that there is a strong connection between religious affiliation and volunteering and giving," said Eugene Tempel, director of the Center on Philanthropy. "We want to explore more deeply why that is and what that means to religious institutions and giving to secular charities, as well."
Made possible through a $5 million gift from the children of the late Thomas and Majorie Lake of Indianapolis, the institute will:
• Pursue research on the connection between philanthropy and religious values.
• Engage the Indianapolis community through workshops, lectures, publications and mentoring programs.
• Hire a professor who will teach at the Center on Philanthropy and in the IUPUI department of religious studies.
Robert Wood Lynn, a retired Lilly Endowment official, will launch the institute early next year, laying the groundwork for its full operation in 2004. The Rev. William Enright, senior pastor at Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis for 21 years, will become senior fellow and executive of the institute in early 2004.
"My task will be to help the community -- its Jewish, Christian and Muslim congregations and its civic leaders -- in conversations about service and giving from a religious perspective," Enright said.
The institute will honor the Lakes, Indianapolis philanthropists with strong connections to Lilly Endowment, a top national foundation based in the city.
Thomas Lake, who died in 1999, spent 22 years with the endowment after a long career with Eli Lilly and Co., serving as endowment president, board chairman and honorary board chairman. He is credited with upholding the Lilly family's commitment to religion through the endowment, which also funds education and community initiatives across Indiana and nationwide.
The institute joins the Indianapolis Center for Congregations, a 6-year-old organization created with support from Lilly Endowment to help congregations thrive; and the Polis Center at IUPUI, which has spent eight years studying the role of religion and urban culture in Indianapolis with endowment support.
Both projects have considered Indianapolis' religious landscape to be fertile ground for research on the impact of faith on cities.
"Indianapolis is an amazing community, rich with religious diversity, where the level of volunteerism is very high, and where the size of the city allows for people of different faiths to make connections that may not happen so easily in larger cities," said Enright.
The announcement comes at a time when churchgoing Americans are giving less of their income to charities, according to Empty Tomb. The Illinois-based organization has spent 30 years studying the nearly four-decade decline in religious giving in the United States.
There also has been a decreasing percentage of giving to the poor and others in need, said Empty Tomb Executive Director Sylvia Ronsvalle. More often, religious people are giving to congregation projects that benefit their own communities -- expanded music programs, day-care programs or education efforts, for example.
The Lake Family Institute has potential, Ronsvalle said, to raise awareness of religious values and true charity among diverse religious communities.
"It could help us answer an important question: Are we focusing on loving our neighbors, or loving ourselves and hoping they do OK with what's left over?"