Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee to Recognize Community Leader N. Clay Robbins with the 2025 Charles L. Whistler Award
The Whistler Award is the Mayor’s highest honor for civic leadership recognizing those dedicated to progress in Indianapolis through public-private partnerships and beyond
INDIANAPOLIS – The Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee (GIPC) and Mayor Joe Hogsett are pleased to announce N. Clay Robbins, Chairman and CEO of Lilly Endowment Inc., as the recipient of the 2025 Charles L. Whistler Award. The annual award, given by the Mayor of Indianapolis since 1983, recognizes individuals who, outside the regular duties of their chosen professions, have brought together the public and private sectors for civic improvement in Indianapolis.
“Clay Robbins embodies the essence of civic leadership that this award represents,” said Mayor Hogsett. “Through his work at Lilly Endowment and in countless community efforts, Clay has strengthened Indianapolis residents’ quality of life for generations to come. Whether it is the historic investment into the city’s park system or support for our vibrant cultural and arts scene, Clay understands the value of public and private spheres coming together for the betterment of our communities.”
For more than three decades, Robbins has performed with vision and humility various leadership roles at Lilly Endowment, one of the nation’s largest private foundations. Since 1937, the organization has disbursed $17.5 billion in grants to support the causes of community development, education and youth development, and religion throughout the country. Under Robbins’ stewardship Lilly Endowment has provided grants totaling nearly $3.9 billion since 1993 aimed at improving the quality of life for all the residents of Indianapolis.
A 2025 honoree of TIME’s “100 Most Influential People in Philanthropy,” Robbins has been widely recognized for advancing ground-breaking initiatives throughout Indiana. In 2024, Gov. Eric Holcomb presented him with the Sachem Award, the state’s highest honor, to recognize Lilly Endowment’s impact on the state during his leadership. Beyond his professional leadership, Robbins has been deeply committed to fostering collaboration among civic, nonprofit, governmental and business leaders. He was a founding board member of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, an organization that gathers leaders of industry, higher education, and philanthropy to advance efforts to build the prosperity throughout the state through a wide range of initiatives and programs. With his leadership, Lilly Endowment has been instrumental in significant endeavors in Indianapolis, ranging from revitalizing neighborhoods and addressing food insecurity to supporting arts and cultural institutions and from launching 16 Tech and strengthening the life sciences sector to supporting the Indianapolis African American Quality of Life Initiative of the National Urban League. Additionally, he is a former board member of United Way of Central Indiana, the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee, and Damar Homes, Inc., and he was a founding director and president of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra.
“As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee, it feels especially fitting to honor Clay Robbins with this year’s Whistler Award. Clay’s lifelong commitment to strengthening Indianapolis through collaboration and philanthropy reflects the very mission on which GIPC was founded in 1965. His leadership has built bridges across sectors, inspired progress, and ensured that Indianapolis continues to thrive as a place of opportunity and community,” said GIPC Board Chairperson Heather Wilson.
Mayor Hogsett will present the 2025 Charles L. Whistler Award at a breakfast ceremony on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, at the Indiana State Museum. This year’s title sponsor is Faegre Drinker. For information on tickets, tables, and sponsorships, visit https://gipc.memberclicks.net/whistleraward.
Last December, Mayor Hogsett presented the 2024 award to Tamika Catchings, Naismith Memorial Hall of Famer and Founder of Catch the Stars Foundation, and Jeff Smulyan, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Emmis Corporation.
About the Charles L. Whistler Award:
Charles L. Whistler understood working for the future. To ensure Whistler’s legacy lives on, GIPC instituted the Charles L. Whistler Award – the most prestigious award given annually to a community volunteer. The Charles L. Whistler Award continues to honor the legacy of Whistler, a lawyer and community leader in the grand tradition, who gave his time and extraordinary abilities to the Indianapolis community without asking for power or position in return.
The name of N. Clay Robbins will be added to a limestone and granite monument containing past award recipients’ names and located in the Charles L. Whistler Memorial Plaza at the City Market in downtown Indianapolis.
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Past Whistler Award Recipients:
1983: Thomas H. Lake
1984: Thomas W. Binford & David R. Frick
1985: Frank P. Lloyd
1986: Phillip R. Duke & Thomas W. Moses
1987: Mattie M. Coney
1988: Donald W. Tanselle
1989: Ramon L. Humke & Henry C. Ryder
1990: Richard O. Morris
1991: Eldon Campbell
1992: Michael A. Carroll
1993: William W. Mays & James T. Morris
1994: Fred C. Tucker, Jr.
1995: Robert H. Reynolds
1996: Thomas M. Miller & Sam H. Jones
1997: Dr. Gene Sease
1998: Jack Shaw & Dan & Lori Efroymson
1999: Andrew Paine & Yvonne Shaheen
2000: Rev. T. Garrott Benjamin & Michael Maurer
2001: Jerry Semler & Fay Williams
2003: Alex Carroll & Rev. Charles Williams
2004: Dr. Beurt Servaas & Gerald Bepko
2005: Joseph D. Barnette, Jr. & G. Frederick Glass
2007: P.E. MacAllister & Marge Tarplee
2008: Patrick J. Early
2009: John T. Neighbours & Sallie W. Rowland
2010: Michael G. Browning
2011: Samuel L. Odle
2012: David Shane
2013: John M. Mutz
2014: Martha Lamkin
2015: Thomas A. King
2016: Sarah & John Lechleiter
2017: Andre B. Lacy
2018: Marianne Glick
2019: Bill Shrewsberry
2020/2021: Milt Thompson/J. Murray Clark
2022: David L. Johnson
2023: J. Albert Smith Jr.
2024: Tamika Catchings & Jeff Smulyan
More about Charles L. Whistler:
As an Indianapolis Star editorial noted shortly after his death in 1981, “Charles L. Whistler was a visionary, talented and energetic prime mover who had a leading role in shaping the Indianapolis of today and its modern political structure. He loved the capital city and the Hoosier state, town and county, urban scenes with beauty and character, and the great outdoors. He had the persuasive ability often associated with the authors of constitutions and used it to win strong support and positive contributions from others, often representing diverse interests, for the array of projects and programs that he helped conceive and bring to fruition. He wrote much of the legislation consolidating city and county governments under UniGov. He also had a leading role in the modernization and beautification of downtown Indianapolis and the creation of the City Center on Monument Circle, the adaptive reuse of the Indiana Theater, the downtown retailing mall concept, and the planning of the White River State Park.”
About GIPC:
Founded in 1965, the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee (GIPC) is a non-partisan organization that partners with leaders of the public and private sectors of Indianapolis to study, discuss, and address issues of concern and areas of opportunity to advance the progress of the City.
About Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private foundation created in 1937 by J. K. Lilly and his sons, Eli and J. K. Jr., through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, the Endowment is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with its founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion. While the Endowment funds programs throughout the United States on an invitational basis to support these causes, especially in the field of religion, it maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.
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