Author

Andrea Palpant Dilley

Writer

Andrea Palpant Dilley is a senior acquisitions editor at HarperCollins Christian Publishing as well as a writer. Previously she was the online managing editor for Christianity Today. Her writing has appeared in Books and Culture, Rock and Sling, Geez Magazine, Utne Reader and Christianity Today. She grew up in Kenya as the daughter of Quaker missionaries and spent the rest of her childhood in the Pacific Northwest. She is the author of Faith and Other Flat Tires: Searching for God on the Rough Road of Doubt and a contributor to the anthology Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing Up Female and Evangelical. She lives with her husband and four children in the Chicago area.

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Lilly Endowment Inc. announces Exploring Christian Practices Initiative

The Exploring Christian Practices Initiative aims to multiply opportunities and increase access to settings that help individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds explore and engage in Christian practices to address their spiritual interests and questions, find and build community with others, nourish their religious lives and grow in faith. 

In this open and competitive initiative, the Endowment invites charitable organizations to submit proposals for grants of up to $2.5 million each that may be used for up to a five-year period to develop new and/or enhance existing programs that present promising strategies for advancing the aim of the initiative and provide compelling and thoughtful responses to its guiding questions. The Endowment anticipates awarding approximately 60 grants and announcing grant awards in December 2026.

The Endowment will host four virtual information sessions (February 17, 19, 24, and 25) to discuss the Exploring Christian Practices guidelines for submitting a proposal. An Interest Form and Letter of Interest are due March 25, 2026. Complete proposals are due May 18, 2026.

Learn More and register for information sessions