Learn more about this year’s scholarship recipients in the interactive annual FFL report.
View the report
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 a Fund for Leaders full-tuition scholarships will be through an online process from Dec. 2, 2024, to Feb. 21, 2025. To be eligible, applicants must be planning to enroll at an ELCA seminary as first-year students (juniors) in the fall semester of the 2025-2026 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.
The application windows are as follows:
ELCA Fund for Leaders Direct Full-Tuition Scholarship: Dec. 2, 2024, to Feb. 21, 2025
ELCA Fund for Leaders Federal Chaplaincy Ministries Scholarship: Feb. 10, 2025, to Mar. 14, 2025
ELCA Fund for Leaders Mission Developer Scholarship: Dec. 2, 2024, to Feb. 3, 2025
ELCA Fund for Leaders Synod or Congregation Scholarship: May 16, 2025, to Jun. 6, 2025
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.
