The Lillys began in the Spring of 2010 as The Lilly Awards, an outlet to honor the work of women in the American theater. The founders are: Julia Jordan, Marsha Norman, and Theresa Rebeck. The organization is named for Lillian Hellman, a pioneering American playwright who famously said “You need to write like the devil and act like one when necessary.”

In 2015, through a partnership with the Dramatists Guild, the Lillys gathered resources and conducted a national survey simply called The Count, proving that BIPOC women were by far the least represented demographic on our stages. The Lillys spread that information far and wide and have devoted the majority of their funds and efforts to women of color ever since, including with their support of 3Views.

In 2022, the Lillys launched the Lorraine Hansberry Initiative with a national tour of a sculpture by Alison Saar, and a unique scholarship to cover not only the tuition but the living expenses of women and non-binary BIPOC dramatic writers in graduate school.