ELCA Fund for Leaders

Watch the ELCA Fund for Leaders 25th Anniversary Scholarship Awards Celebration

The ELCA Fund for Leaders scholarship program supports students attending ELCA seminaries. By making seminary more affordable, the ELCA Fund for Leaders enables more future ministers to go to seminary and helps them graduate with less debt, empowering those whom God calls into ministry to go and serve as the church needs and the Holy Spirit leads.

We are church, and each of us has a unique role to play in furthering the mission and ministry of the church. Your gift to the ELCA Fund for Leaders ensures that highly talented individuals will be able to answer the call to leadership for this church and for our future. 

The next opportunity to apply for Fund for Leaders full-tuition scholarships will be through an online process from Nov. 15, 2022, to Feb. 25, 2023. To be eligible, applicants must be planning to enroll at an ELCA seminary as first-year students (juniors) in the fall semester of the 2023-2024 academic year, with no more than one semester’s worth of coursework already completed. Applicants must also have begun the ELCA candidacy process with the intent of becoming a rostered minister of either word and sacrament or word and service.

Visit the Our Scholarships page for more information about these and other Fund for Leaders scholarships.

For more information, please send us an email or call 800-638-3522.

By the Numbers


See the impact of Fund for Leaders scholarships in the 2022-2023 academic year.

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Apply for a Scholarship


Get started with your Fund for Leaders Scholarship application.

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