As a private foundation, Ball Brothers Foundation has maintained a long-standing partnership with Ivy Tech Community College, supporting programs aligned with workforce development and higher education. Over the years, this has included funding for the startup of new academic programs designed to meet regional workforce needs.

Cardinal Greenways began in the early 1990s as a community-led effort to transform an abandoned railroad corridor into a regional trail connecting East Central Indiana. Incorporated as a nonprofit in 1993, Cardinal Greenways purchased miles of former rail line and began building what would become Indiana’s longest rail-trail, with the first trail segment opening from Prairie Creek Reservoir to the Wysor Street Depot Muncie in the late 1990s.

Ball Memorial Hospital’s story is closely tied to the Ball family’s long-standing connection to East Central Indiana. In the early 1900s, members of the Ball family recognized the growing need for a public hospital in Muncie—a need that expanded as the community grew. In the early 1920s, Edmund Ball committed to helping fund a new hospital once state authorization was secured.

The relationship between the Ball family and the YMCA of Muncie spans more than a century—deeply rooted in a shared belief in the power of community, character, and opportunity. For decades, community leaders hoped for a more permanent facility. In 1911, the Ball brothers pledged funds toward a new YMCA building, encouraging the community to raise an additional $50,000 to bring the project to life.