PALNI receives $1.34 million Lilly Endowment grant to enhance PALSave affordable learning program

Written by Molly Reed, Strategic Communications Director | Sep 2, 2025 11:55:42 AM

INDIANAPOLIS—The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) has received a $1.34 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to launch the next phase of its transformative PALSave: PALNI Affordable Learning Program. The four-year initiative, titled Strengthening the PALSave Affordable Learning Program for Greater Impact, will build on the program’s proven success in reducing textbook costs, expanding access to learning materials, and empowering faculty across Indiana’s private higher education sector to adopt, adapt, and create open educational resources (OER).

Since its inception in 2019, PALSave has eliminated over $3.3 million in textbook costs in more than 53,000 student enrollments through the adoption of zero-cost course materials. Faculty from PALNI’s 23 supported institutions have implemented 417 course transformations and authored 13 open-access textbooks used in classrooms across Indiana and beyond. The program has delivered an 857% return on investment through course redesign stipends, enhanced the skills of librarians, faculty, and instructional technologists, and fostered a thriving community dedicated to affordable, accessible education.

“Accessing course materials for free saves students money, relieves financial stress, and helps them succeed academically,” says Amanda Hurford, PALNI Scholarly Communications Director and PALSave Program Lead. “These factors highlight the need for our program to continue deeply engaging faculty in education about OER, simplify the process of locating free-to-student texts and designing courses with them, and expand opportunities to adopt, adapt, create, and update OER.”

“This new grant from Lilly Endowment enables us to strengthen and expand our efforts to make education more affordable in meaningful, lasting ways,” says Kirsten Leonard, PALNI Executive Director. “We are thrilled that Lilly Endowment has empowered PALNI to continue this work.”

Sustaining momentum, tackling new challenges

The next phase of PALSave will continue core textbook affordability efforts while addressing emerging needs. With this new funding, PALNI will:

Build awareness through a coordinated multi-campus campaign to educate students, faculty, and administrators about zero-cost resources.
Increase OER availability via a sustainable publishing program with the PALNI Open Press to support new textbook creation and ancillary materials.
Support OER sustainability and quality by developing a structured workflow and stipend program for updating and adapting existing open textbooks.
Add capacity for faculty engagement with a new toolkit offering clear pathways to participate in affordability initiatives, including recognition and potential fellowships.
Address automatic billing practices by creating a comprehensive guide to help campuses evaluate textbook affordability models, including inclusive access and OER.

“These initiatives are designed to address real barriers faculty and students face—from a lack of awareness to limited availability of open materials,” says Hurford. “Thanks to Lilly Endowment’s continued support, we can scale our solutions and support deeper institutional change.”

Plan for the next phase

To expand its impact, PALSave will sustain its most successful strategies—such as faculty stipends, workshops, and textbook creation grants—while exploring new directions, including course marking and additional support for ancillary and adapted OER. Program activities will be organized across five interconnected workstreams:

Education: Embedding affordable learning in faculty onboarding and offering workshops, training, and outreach to academic leaders.
Integration: Supporting faculty through course redesign stipends and assisting institutions in identifying and marking zero-cost courses.
Creation: Providing grants and services to develop, adapt, and professionally publish high-quality open educational resources.
Sustainability: Ensuring OER remain current and impactful through structured update workflows, adaptation support, and recognition in promotion and tenure processes.
Community: Continue building a community of champions through faculty recognition, events, professional development, and participation in national networks.

This strategic approach allows PALSave to build capacity, increase engagement, and improve long-term outcomes for students and educators alike.

Ongoing support from Lilly Endowment

Lilly Endowment Inc. provided initial funding of $520,000 in 2019 to launch the PALSave program, followed by a $275,000 grant in 2022 to extend its reach. With this new $1.34 million grant, total funding from Lilly Endowment for PALSave now exceeds $2.1 million.

The program’s benefits extend beyond PALNI’s 23 supported institutions. Textbooks developed through PALSave are freely available to anyone, anywhere—supporting broader access to high-quality, no-cost educational resources.

Learn more about PALSave by visiting the program website.

View an infographic for Strengthening the PALSave Affordable Learning Program for Greater Impact 2025-2029.

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About Lilly Endowment Inc.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based, private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by three members of the Lilly family — J.K. Lilly Sr. and sons J.K. Jr. and Eli — 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 the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. More information can be found at www.lillyendowment.org.

About the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana

The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) is a non-profit organization that supports collaboration for library and information services for 23 colleges, universities and seminaries throughout the state. From its inception in 1992, the PALNI collaboration has been a key avenue for its supported institutions to contain costs while providing more effective library services. More recently, PALNI has adopted a model of deep collaboration that pools resources and people as a tool to expand services while containing costs. Simultaneously, PALNI is expanding collaboration within its institutions and with external library partners to address challenges and build cost-effective services. Visit the PALNI website for more information. (www.palni.org)

PALNI Supported Institutions

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