Three decades in the Senate. Now, a foundation to finish the work.
Founded by Jim Merritt, who spent 30 years in the Indiana Senate authoring the state's leading opioid recovery, child protection, and public safety laws. The Merritt Foundation carries that work forward with the resources to match it.
- 30 yearsIndiana State Senate, District 31
- 4 causesA record of authored legislation
- IndianaFocused where he served
A record built one bill at a time
Jim Merritt represented Indiana Senate District 31 for 30 years, from 1990 to 2020. Over that time he authored the state's first meaningful limits on opioid prescriptions, expanded Hoosiers' access to life-saving Naloxone, funded child rescue investigators, and increased penalties for human traffickers.
The Merritt Foundation exists to put resources, not just legislation, behind that same work.
Read His StoryFour causes, one clear record
Ordered by the depth of Jim Merritt's legislative record, from decades of authored law to a cause he is actively building now.
Mental Health Awareness
Breaking the silence around mental health so Hoosiers can find the help they deserve.
Learn more → 02Prostate Cancer Awareness
Championing the screenings and education that catch prostate cancer before it's too late.
Learn more → 03Indiana's Lifeline Law
Funding the investigators, tools, and protections that keep Indiana's children safe.
Learn more → 04Hungry Hoosiers
Because no Hoosier child should go to bed hungry tonight.
Learn more →A record you can verify, not just a promise
Legislative track record
Every cause we fund traces back to laws Jim Merritt actually authored and passed in the Indiana Senate.
Focused on Indiana
Every cause is rooted in the communities Jim Merritt represented for three decades.
Transparent about where funds go
See exactly how a gift is allocated across our four causes on the Donate page.
Ongoing impact updates
We publish regular updates on the work your donation supports.
Impact Updates
Ongoing stories about the work your support makes possible.
Prostate Cancer Awareness
The Appointment He Almost Didn't Make
He had been meaning to schedule it for two years. Life kept getting in the way — until someone finally sat down with him and explained why it couldn't wait.
Indiana's Lifeline Law
The Law That Couldn't Wait: How Indiana's Lifeline Law Came to Be
Every law has a moment that makes it necessary. For Indiana's Lifeline Law, that moment arrived not in a courtroom or a committee room, but in the quiet, heartbreaking space where a child's safety had already been compromised and the system had no good answer.
General
Where Everybody Knows Your Name: Recovery in Small-Town Indiana
In Indiana's smaller communities, the opioid crisis doesn't hide behind anonymity. It shows up at the dinner table, at church, at the gas station. The Merritt Foundation is meeting it there.