Vietnam Education Center Receives $10M Grant From Lilly Endowment

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has received a $10 million grant for its proposed education center adjacent to its famous memorial on the National Mall in Washington.

The VVMF said the grant from the Lilly Endowment is the largest single cash donation in VVMF’s 37-year history.

VVMF has been trying to raise money to build the underground education center at the Wall since 2003. With the Lilly donation, VVMF said it now has $42.5 million of the $130 million it needs to raise.

The center will be a 25,000-square-foot building displaying thousands of artifacts left at the memorial over the years, first-person accounts of veterans and citizens and a two-story wall showing the faces of the 58,000 people whose names are etched on the memorial.