The Sycamore Foundation: Helping Non-Profits See New Connections and Reach New Heights

The Sycamore Foundation empowers and supports small charities that embody our core values and larger organizations that are working to change lives.

Our Principles

The success of a nonprofit depends on its internal organization and collaborative relationships. We seek to encourage charities that have effective practices and to foster collaboration among them.

As a faith-based foundation, one of our main objectives is to help youth organizations expand their capacity through the exchange of ideas. We’ve also partnered with no-kill animal shelters, law enforcement foundations, child advocacy groups, and other worthy organizations that are making a difference in our communities.

We support and celebrate:
• Programs that promote collaborative fundraising for nonprofits
• Programs that build community and encourage partnership with other organizations in the belief that collaborative leadership reduces duplications

About Us

We began as a group of civic-minded entrepreneurs, pledging to tithe 10 percent of our profits to charity every year. While financial support is important for nonprofits, we realized we had an opportunity to do more, and in 1992, we established the Sycamore Foundation. Since then, we have worked to facilitate community philanthropy, enhance organizational effectiveness, and acknowledge top-performing organizations.

We were the founder of the Indiana Achievement Awards, in which we partnered with other foundations, the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, and the Indianapolis Business Journal to recognize six outstanding nonprofits in Indiana each year for 10 years.