Meridian Foundation honors 8 innovative nonprofits in 2025
Five-year old innovation program finds creative community solutions; nonprofits share $145,000 Arago Honor award pool
Indianapolis—December 14, 2025
Indianapolis-based Meridian Foundation announced today that eight more local nonprofits are recognized for innovation in 2025. Through a robust due-diligence process the nonprofits are recognized for creatively solving community problems by Donna Oklak, Meridian Foundation founder. Since 2022, 40 local nonprofits have been honored.
“It is my belief that the challenging and complex problems in our community need creative solutions,” said Oklak. “ We are proud to support innovative nonprofits providing education to incarcerated women, new local journalism, affordable neurological recovery, new playwright development, workforce development for individuals released from prison, an entrepreneurial support hub for new businesses, drone education, and a new nature preserve from a repurposed/abandoned golf course. We find all of the creative initiatives inspiring.”
In 2025 the Meridian Foundation is proud to recognize its largest class of disruptive innovators with six nonprofits receiving this designation achieving significant, long- term advantages. A total pool of $145,000 has been awarded this year.
The 2025 Arago Honor recipients are:
Marian University’s Women’s College Partnership (WCP) earns recognition for providing college degrees to women at the Indiana Women’s Prison and for replicating the college experience to incarcerated women. WCP began in 2019 with just 16 enrolled students and has grown to 53 women during the 2025-26 academic year. Thirty-seven degrees have been conferred. WCP graduates have a recidivism rate of 1.25 percent compared to 24.4 percent for women released in Indiana. WCP receives $20,000 as a disruptive innovator.
Mirror Indy, launched by Free Press Indiana, is honored for its strong start in a new form of local journalism. In two years it has become a leader in nonprofit community-centered news, giving residents of Indianapolis vital information to navigate daily life and improve their communities. Mirror Indy is rebuilding trust in local media by producing accessible service-oriented journalism. The newsroom is part of American Journalism Project’s Start Up Studio, a national network to strengthen communities, preserve democracy and rebuild local news for an industry in crisis. Free Press Indiana receives $18,000 as a disruptive innovator.
NeuroHope of Indiana bridges the gap in care for individuals recovering from neurological conditions by offering affordable, long term rehabilitation and wellness services outside the constraints of health insurance. The nonprofit is serving more clients in a repurposed 25,000 square foot space in a new campus it shares with Conquer Paralysis Now. In 2015 NeuroHope served 50 individuals and ten years later it has grown to 300 patients annually. NeuroHope is recognized with $18,000 as a disruptive innovator.
The New Harmony Project (NHP) earns recognition for its artist-centered pairing of professional playwrights with local theatres to reverse the decline of new play development in the U.S. NHP is an incubator, covering all exploratory costs and supporting early writing development expenses to prepare plays for production. By reimagining new play development, partnering theatres participate without financial risk and writers are more likely to succeed. NHP’s PlayFest Indy earns $12,500 as an incremental innovator.
PACE (Public Advocates in Community re-Entry) is addressing unemployment and underemployment for men and women released from incarceration. PACE designed Launching Your Career (LYC) on an “ABC Model” (Any Job, Better Job, Career) to provide a holistic, phased pathway that moves participants beyond basic employment to sustainable, higher wage-careers. In one year, 22 formerly incarcerated students have graduated from LYC and 12 in the program have achieved 6-month job retention. PACE receives $16,500 as a disruptive innovator.
P30, an entrepreneurial support nonprofit, earns recognition for transforming an Indianapolis’ Far Eastside warehouse into a 30,000 square- foot hub for minority-led businesses. This innovator uses a hybrid approach to build and strengthen its 500 members building sustainable, viable, and community driven businesses. Housed in the ecosystem are work and meeting spaces, a commercial kitchen, coffee house, laundry facilities, game room, art gallery, fitness, printing and technology access. A blended funding formula allows P30 to cover 70 percent of its operating budget through earned income revenue, making the nonprofit less reliant on grants and more resilient. P30 receives $20,000 as a disruptive innovator.
Triple T Academy is an innovative STEM program introducing students to potential careers in aviation using drones. Triple T is the only nonprofit in Indiana offering hands- on FAA Part 107 commercial drone pilot training, including a drone soccer program to spark student interest. Triple T Academy is recognized not only for demonstrating highly creative thinking, and for reframing students’ intense engagement with screens and video games into a viable workforce solution. This nonprofit receives $15,000 as a start-up innovator.
Zionsville Parks Foundation is recognized for the 2026 opening of the 215-acre Carpenter Nature Preserve. The land, formerly an abandoned private golf course, is being transformed into walking trails, boardwalks, nature inspired playgrounds, outdoor classrooms, Eagle Creek overlooks, and enhanced wetlands, woodlands and prairies. Strategic public-partnerships are at the core of this incredible land transformation as only 28 former golf courses in the U.S. have been become public green spaces in the last fifteen years. Zionsville Parks Foundation receives $25,000 as a disruptive innovator.
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Arago Honors featuring unrestricted awards which allows the nonprofit recipients to use the funds however they wish to carry forward a new cycle of investment and innovation.
To learn more about the innovation selection criteria of previous honorees, visit the Meridian Foundation website, www.indymeridianfoundation.org.
Congrats to our 2025 recipients!
PACE (Public Advocates in Community Re-Entry)
About the Meridian Foundation
Founded in 2019, the Meridian Foundation aims to support, accelerate, and celebrate nonprofit innovation. For more information, visit www.indymeridianfoundation.org.