A focus on Scholarships

Trevor Cairney Head, Moore College Foundation

This has been my first opportunity as the Head of the Moore College Foundation to launch the Winter Appeal. In my short time in the role, I’ve been encouraged by the responsiveness of friends of Moore College to the varied requests we make for funds and support.

We don’t make such requests lightly. Like you, I support varied causes, organisations, people and of course my church. Having just completed a successful campaign to fund the new building, we are now turning our attention to other things, even though there is still need for further building.

We are all living at a time when our mailboxes, or perhaps our ‘inboxes’, are flooded with emails and ‘virtual’ campaigns. Carmen and I consider carefully the worth of each request. A major factor in our minds is what will be the impact of our gift for the work of God in the world, and in particular, seeking the lost.

Here at Moore, we have urgent needs for your support in three broad areas: scholarships, general support, and buildings.

Gifts in each of the above categories are investments in the work of God. Would you join us in prayer for the people God is preparing for lives of Christ-centred ministry? May they see the need to devote themselves to serious full-time study, and seek his guidance concerning where they might serve. As my three stories showed earlier in this edition, graduates serve in varied ways. Some wish to serve youth and children’s ministry, others in teaching, university ministry, administration, and Christian leadership. What do we need to further this work?

Our BIG priority right now, is scholarships!

Like you, I know young (and not so young) men and women being encouraged to leave what they are doing to train for full-time ministry. While we have some scholarship support due to generous bequests and donations in the past, we have far less than we need. This has been drawn into sharp focus by recent proposals from the Federal government for changes to HECS and FEE-HELP loan limits, that would make it very difficult for many to study—in particular, those who have used HECS funded loans for previous degrees at universities (most of our applicants).

If these changes are approved, many will not be able to afford to study at Moore. Vital full-time study at Moore College has always required the majority of students to save for a number of years, and sell worldly possessions to pay for fees and other expenses. Without FEE-HELP, many won’t be able to come.

Our response? A focus on developing a major endowed scholarship fund that will grow over the years, with scholarships funded from growth in the fund, not the gifts. It would have simple and transparent rules, high visibility, and increasingly, enough funds to provide a significant number of new scholarships each year. There would be a single point of entry for applications. This will require strong advocacy and involvement of you our supporters—‘champions’ for this critical need! Would you consider a gift to this new fund? We hope it will be in place for the 2019 academic year. If it is to be in place, it will require a number of generous gifts and a commitment from many to see this as an important ongoing area of support. My wife Carmen and I intend to become ongoing supporters of such a fund. I hope that many of you will join us as well.

If you would like more information about the need for the fund, or if you’d like to discuss a major gift, please call me on my direct line at College, 02 9577 9900, or send an email to Trevor.Cairney@moore.edu.au.

I look forward to partnering with you in this new program.