PC(USA) Receives $1M Lilly Endowment Grant for PDA

The National Response Team (NRT) is a group of specially trained volunteers who represent Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the field, following natural and human-caused disasters. The team posed for a group photo during its annual meeting in 2026. (Photo courtesy of PDA)

For more information about Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, go here. Read about the Lilly Endowment here and below.

LOUISVILLE – Lilly Endowment Inc. has awarded a $1 million grant to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to support the work of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance through the Indianapolis-based foundation’s national initiative, “Hope After the Storm: Capacity Building for Faith-Based Disaster Relief Organizations.”

The grant will enable PDA to do a number of things, including creating two regional networks, expanding the ministry’s emotional-and-spiritual-care offerings and providing more training for its National Response Team (NRT) members. It also plans to strengthen its support for Mid Councils and others, work with consultants to enhance PDA’s ability to work with diverse communities, and develop a secure digital hub to help with the managing of volunteers and handling of documents.

“It is incredibly rare for PDA to receive the support of a grant where funds are intended for the strengthening of our own internal capacity,” said the Rev. Kathy Lee-Cornell, the ministry’s national disaster associate. “The Lilly Endowment grant gives us permission to engage in self-evaluation, to listen more deeply to our partners and to reimagine the ways PDA can be more responsive, effective and efficient in the delivery of our resources and training to support Mid Councils, impacted communities, faith leaders and congregations and disaster response volunteers.”