December 15, 2025
DENVER, CO - Denver Institute for Faith & Work has received a grant of $4,500,000.00 from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its National Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life 2025. The grant will support the CityGate Storytelling Initiative: Parables for Transformation through Work, a five-year national project designed to identify, produce, and share 655 multi-format stories that illuminate how Christian faith is lived out through daily work. This grant will enable telling compelling stories about the hope and vibrancy of the Christian faith as it is lived out in workplaces and industries. The CityGate Storytelling Initiative will begin its national rollout in early 2026, with story production, training, and partnership development unfolding over the following five years.
The CityGate Network is a community of leaders from more than 85 organizations committed to vocational discipleship and city flourishing through faith and work integration. That network is funded and stewarded by Denver Institute. Over the next five years, the initiative will equip leaders nationwide in story-based transformation practices, develop a national content hub and local distribution strategy, and produce short films, podcasts, written stories, and live storytelling events that help people come to know and love God through the stories of everyday workers. All of the funds received through this Grant will go toward funding new storytelling initiatives and will not affect the operating budget of any particular organization, including Denver Institute.
When Jesus was asked why he told stories, he explained, “If there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward a welcome awakening. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it” (Matthew 13:15, MSG).
Our plan is built on the same recognition Jesus and Lilly Endowment have made: people come to know and love God through story. Work is a varied context with a vast array of stories waiting to be voiced. We are particularly enthusiastic about releasing stories with the CityGate organizations because stories are best reflected upon and discussed with trusted guides and in community.
We truly believe that compelling stories of faithful work will ignite the imaginations of Christian workers to see with new eyes how their daily labor can bring honor and glory to God and ultimately point their coworkers, clients, and customers to the love of God.
Denver Institute for Faith & Work is one of 60 organizations nationwide that have received grants through the initiative since 2024. Grantees include media organizations, denominational judicatories, church networks, publishers, educational institutions, congregations and other nonprofit charitable organizations. More information about the initiative and the projects it supports can be found on the Lilly Endowment website.
The CityGate Storytelling Initiative’s central goal is to help people encounter the hope and life of Christian faith through the ordinary yet profound stories of Christians at work. Over the next five years, Denver Institute and its CityGate partners will produce 35 short films, 120 podcasts, 250 written stories, and 250 live storytelling events. In addition to content production, the initiative will train CityGate organizations in a parable-inspired transformation model, equip them with tools for story identification and data management, and help them leverage both new and existing programs as opportunities for vocational imagination and community renewal. This work aims to help reshape how Christian workers understand their daily work as a place of spiritual formation, public witness, and societal impact.
Christian workers’ stories can be the most compelling witness to the hope and life that Jesus brings. This initiative will help communities across the country discover and share transformative stories—stories that invite people to reimagine their work, renew their sense of calling, and experience God’s presence in their everyday lives. Denver Institute is deeply grateful for Lilly Endowment’s investment in this shared vision.
If you are interested in learning more, there are three ways to get involved:
- Stay Informed: The best way to stay informed about upcoming releases, events, and opportunities to participate is to sign up for Denver Institute’s email list.
- Story Preview: Those eager to glimpse what’s ahead can get an early preview of worker stories at Business for the Common Good on March 6, 2026, in Denver, CO. This gathering will feature the first stories and themes shaping the CityGate Storytelling Initiative.
- Job Opportunities: To steward this national initiative with excellence, Denver Institute will hire a full-time Director of Storytelling and a Production Manager. These roles will oversee narrative strategy, production quality, training for CityGate partners, and coordination of the multi-year rollout of 655 story products. In addition, the organization is hiring a Director of Development, a position separate from the grant that will expand organizational capacity and enable the team to fully support the initiative’s work. Job descriptions for all three roles are posted on Denver Institute’s website.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it 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 founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A primary aim of its grantmaking in religion is to deepen the religious lives of Christians, principally by supporting efforts that enhance congregational vitality and strengthen the leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment values the broad diversity of Christian traditions and endeavors to support them in a wide variety of contexts. The Endowment also seeks to foster public understanding about religion by encouraging fair, accurate and balanced portrayals of the positive and negative effects of religion on the world and lifting up the contributions that people of all faiths make to our greater civic well-being.
The aim of Lilly Endowment’s National Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life is to help organizations identify, produce and share with a wide variety of audiences compelling stories that portray the vibrancy and hope of Christian faith and life.
