Big donations that will make lasting impression

Mike Guido, Hitachi Global Air Power CFO, signs his name to a Sullair compressor as part of a company donation program. (Photos provided by Hitachi)

Some NWI firms find more is best when it comes to charitable giving

When Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana opened its large glass doors to the public in 2021, the city of Gary knew great things would come.

Since then, the glitzy casino — with a dedicated tribute to Michael Jackson and the Jackson family, natives of Gary — has set attendance records and is now the No. 1 casino in Indiana.

Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana also gives back to its new home, and Gary has hit the jackpot!

Earlier this year, the casino announced a $3 million donation to help revitalize downtown Gary.

“This catalytic donation from Hard Rock marks a new chapter in Gary’s story, one where we begin to turn the page on blight and write our future,” said Gary Mayor Eddie Melton at Gary City Hall in March. “A future in which Gary residents see real change and feel a renewed sense of pride in our downtown Broadway Corridor.”

Hard Rock Casino is just one example of Northwest Indiana-based companies and firms giving large sums to local charities and nonprofits to lift the Region and move it forward.

Other Region-based businesses and firms have also doled out large sums to local nonprofits, including NIPSCO, the Region’s utility company, which is owned by NiSource. Donations are made through the NiSource Charitable Foundation.

“NiSource Charitable Foundation’s goal is to create strong and sustainable communities where our employees and customers live and work,” said Wendy Lussier, director of communications for NIPSCO. “The aim is to give back to the communities where NIPSCO and NiSource are privileged to serve.”

Corporate donations do more than save on tax bills; they are a strategic investment in communities where companies’ employees live, work and play. Those kinds of amenities help make happy and healthy employees.

“Ultimately, integrating philanthropy into corporate strategy not only benefits society but also contributes to the long-term success and sustainability of businesses while prioritizing social responsibility is not only doing good but also doing well,” wrote Zack Block of Pittsburgh-based Block & Associates on his company’s website.

Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana

Hard Rock’s generous contribution to Gary will go toward blight elimination within Gary’s Metro Transit Development District (TDD), which is primarily located around the downtown Broadway Corridor.

The Hard Rock donation is an important part of the Blighted Property Demolition Fund established by Indiana Senate Bill 434, economic development legislation authored by Melton when he was an Indiana state senator and passed in 2023.

“Hard Rock is pleased to support Mayor Melton’s mission to improve the economic development of the city of Gary by demolishing the blighted properties that currently stand in the way,” said Hard Rock Casino President Matt Schuffert. “Our announcement … of Hard Rock’s transfer of $3 million to help support the city’s contributions to the Northwest Indiana RDA’s blighted property demolition fund confirms our mission of ‘All Is One’, which has been Hard Rock’s motto throughout.”

Schuffert said giving back is at the core of the Hard Rock brand.

“The motto of Hard Rock International is to ‘Love All, Serve All,’” Schuffert said. “At Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana, our mission is to serve the residents in our community who are most in need.”

The city of Gary is not the only entity to benefit from Hard Rock Casino’s generosity. Other nonprofits have received at least $5,000, including the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana, the Urban League, Meals on Wheels, American Cancer Society and the Sojourner Truth House in Gary.

“We are proud of the financial assistance that Hard Rock has been able to provide to residents in the past. And, we are committed to continuing our philanthropic giving to the community in the future,” Schuffert said.

NiSource Charitable Foundation

NIPSCO’s parent company NiSource created the NiSource Charitable Foundation in 1990 to manage its charitable giving. According to Lussier, the foundation and NIPSCO’s giving strategy is primarily focused across key pillars that align with the business’ goal to support the communities where its customers and employees live and work:

Basic needs and safety
Diversity, equity and inclusion
Environmental stewardship
STEM education and economic development

For example, two long-standing NIPSCO-targeted grant programs are public safety education and training grants, and environmental action grants.

“We give to multiple organizations in increments of $500 to $5,000 in both these categories. The most recent totals given during each of these last annual program campaigns were $66,000 total for public safety education and training, and $60,000 for environmental action.”

In 2023, NIPSCO’s public safety education and training grants went to 16 organization throughout Northwest Indiana, including the Elkhart County Emergency Management Agency, St. John Volunteer Fire Department, South Haven Fire Department, Rensselaer Fire Department, Town of Cedar Lake and the Cedar Lake Police Department, and the East Chicago Fire Department.

Donations and grants only come from contributions from NIPSCO, its shareholders, the NiSource Charitable Foundation and direct employee contributions. Customer energy rates are not used for donations or grants, Lussier said.

Lussier also said NIPSCO and NiSource are committed to giving employees time to volunteer, including some paid time off each year. NiSource also offers a Dollars For Doers program. It donates to a qualified 501(c)(3) organization up to a certain threshold based on employee volunteer hours.

Some upcoming examples of volunteerism programming in action are NIPSCO’s annual Charity of Choice campaign, which is a monthlong event in September. Employees are invited to provide volunteer hours to 25 organizations all across the company’s service area to help make a difference.

“Our goal is to contribute 1,000 collective volunteer hours over the course of this monthlong campaign,” Lussier said.

Hope for the Holidays is another big campaign. Last year, employees donated money and more than 1,000 toys for organizations that help shelters.

“Last year was the 11th year of Hope for the Holidays, and more than $150,000 was donated to organizations in Northern Indiana,” she said.

Hitachi Global Air Power

Another firm dedicated to providing resources to local organizations is Michigan City-based Hitachi Global Air Power U.S. The firm has donated $10,000 each year for the past three years to several organizations and donated a compressor, valued at $25,000, to the ARA Foundation.

“Hitachi Global Air Power has always been a proud supporter of our community,” said Jennifer Ohlinger, spokesperson for Hitachi Global Air Power U.S.

The company produces compressors under its brand Sullair. It was renamed in 2023 from Sullair to Hitachi Global Air Power because the company now represents more brands than Sullair.

The manufacturing facility in Michigan City was founded in 1965 and was purchased by Hitachi in 2017. It’s among the area’s largest employers with Hitachi investing more than $45 million into the facility.

In February, Hitachi Global Air Power announced that it would donate a purple, Mardi Gras-themed Sullair 185 Series Tier 4 Final Portable Air Compressor to the ARA Foundation charity auction featuring hand-written notes and remembrances from employees who support the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

Hitachi Global Air Power also announced that it would make a separate $10,000 charitable donation to the Alzheimer’s Association in support of research and awareness.

“Over the past several years, Hitachi Global Air Power has proudly stood by the ARA Foundation, championing their invaluable work supporting the rental industry,” said John Randall, Hitachi Global Air Power president and CEO. “We have also taken the opportunity in recent years to tie this support to other deserving charities close to our hearts.”

The annual ARA Foundation charity auction is held in conjunction with the American Rental Association’s trade show.

“Our dedication to these causes is more than a gesture — it’s a reflection of our values, a belief in shared responsibility and a strong commitment to our community,” Randall said.

Centier Bank

Centier Bank, a local family-owned institution since 1895, is also big on charitable giving.

“As a proud community bank who is driven to preserve hometown community banking in perpetuity, a primary focus is on the impact that the organization and family have the opportunity to make in the community which they have served for over 129 years,” said Anthony Contrucci, president of First Bancshares Inc., Centier Bank’s parent company.

Over the years, Merrillville-based Centier has given back to more than 1,500 local organizations.

Although corporate giving is an important part of what community relations does on behalf of the bank, Centier is equally proud of the other meaningful ways they touch lives and create impact in the countless communities across the northern half of the state.

Since 2013 this commitment includes 135,000-plus volunteer hours at more than 3,000 nonprofit organizations.

“As a community bank, no donation or sponsorship is too small,” Contrucci said. “Centier recognizes that every dollar matters, and the impact of those financial resources are sometimes hard to quantify.”

In 2024, here are some of the groups that Centier has donated to:

Food insecurity — Porter County 4-H and the NWI Food Bank: $7,500
Food insecurity — Meals on Wheels: $10,000
Domestic violence — St. Jude House: $7,500
Financial education — Junior Achievement of Northern Indiana: $10,000

But Centier also makes big donations, including a $1 million-plus gift to help add onto the YMCA in Crown Point. Centier joined several organizations to fund the $35 million expansion. The Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation took the lead on that Southlake YMCA project with a $21 million donation. The McColly Foundation also contributed $100,000 to the project. McColly Real Estate, which was founded in 1974, is based in Schererville.

This gift creates a space for families to come together and have fun, Contrucci said.

Another family-centric gift providing a platform for families to come together and have fun was the naming of the Potawatomi Zoo Train in South Bend, which was a $150,000 contribution.

“Giving back to our communities is paramount to us. Centier is still here today due to the loyalty that it was shown in the 1980s when the bank almost failed. The community rallied and supported the bank allowing it to earn its way out of a dire situation,” Contrucci said.

Family foundation

While the Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation might not sound corporate, Dean White’s success in the hospitality industry planted his family’s philanthropic roots.

The foundation recently made a historic 10-year commitment to the Big Shoulders Fund. The $150 million donation will benefit schools in the Catholic Diocese of Gary over the next decade.

“We know that access to high-quality, values-based education is as important as anything we can support, and our efforts would not be complete without a deep commitment to the Catholic schools that have been a critical part of the fabric of Northwest Indiana for decades,” said Bill Hanna, executive director of the Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation, in a press release. “Big Shoulders Fund and the Diocese of Gary have developed an effective partnership over the last five years that led us to this moment.”

The foundation’s generosity has also benefited Opportunity Enterprises’ Lake Eliza campus tree house with a $1.2 million donation, Bulldog Park in Crown Point with an $11 million investment, and a $3.5 million grant to redesign Nassau Park in Lowell.

Large donations can make a big difference to communities.

“This remarkable donation from the Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation will help change the course for communities through the dedication and hard work of Big Shoulders Fund with the Catholic Diocese of Gary and, more broadly, throughout the Region,” said Gov. Eric Holcomb when the donation was announced in June.

Mayor Melton puts these types of large donations into perspective: “We are planting seeds of hope and growth.”

— Heather Pfundstein contributed to this article.

Read more stories from the current issue of Northwest Indiana Business Magazine.

Michael Puente
Michael Puente works full time for WBEZ 91.5 FM Chicago Public Radio. He covers politics, environment and features in Northwest Indiana, southwest Michigan and Chicago’s South Side. For 11 years, Michael wrote for the Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana. Michael also spent two years writing for the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill., covering Chicago’s northwest suburbs. Michael is a contributing writer for Cafe Latino Lifestyles Magazine in Chicago and an adjunct faculty instructor at Calumet College of St. Joseph in Hammond.
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