Murdock Trust Awards CCCU Capacity-Building Grant

WASHINGTON – As a continuation of its longtime support of the CCCU’s efforts to advance faith and intellect for the common good, the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust has awarded the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities a significant capacity-building grant.

The three-year grant will help the CCCU establish its own development office, which will allow the CCCU both to increase its presence and effectiveness in Washington, D.C. and to improve and expand its broad range of services to its membership. The grant reflects the Murdock Charitable Trust’s commitment to supporting Christian higher education, especially institutions in the Pacific Northwest.

“The Murdock Charitable Trust has been an indispensable partner throughout the 40-plus year history of the CCCU. At pivotal times of the CCCU’s history, Murdock has been there to support critical projects that advance the movement of Christian higher education. I am deeply grateful for their belief in my leadership and in the future of the CCCU,” says CCCU President Shirley V. Hoogstra. “This generous gift will allow us to meet the assignments God has given the CCCU as the only organization with the history, credibility, and mission to advocate for Christian higher education to leaders within the academy, the media, and the halls of power.”

The grant comes at a time when the broader culture is increasingly apathetic, misinformed, or even hostile to the role that First Amendment rights, especially religious freedom, plays in society, Hoogstra says. “In funding this project, the Murdock Charitable Trust and the CCCU will partner together to ensure that the case for Christian higher education, for religious freedom, for free inquiry in the marketplace of ideas, and for the Christian faith is being argued persuasively and irenically, seasoned with grace and truth.”

“We are pleased to continue our partnership with the CCCU as we work together to strengthen and implement the ideals and mission of Christian higher education in the Pacific Northwest and beyond,” says Dana Miller, senior program director for grant programs at the Murdock Charitable Trust.

The CCCU is searching to hire two roles directly connected to the grant: the director of development and an administrative assistant.

###

The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of more than 180 Christian institutions around the world. With campuses across the globe, including more than 150 in the U.S. and Canada and nearly 30 more from an additional 18 countries, CCCU institutions are accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities whose missions are Christ-centered and rooted in the historic Christian faith. Most also have curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. The CCCU’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth.

The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, created by the will of the late Melvin J. (Jack) Murdock, provides grants to nonprofit organizations in five states of the Pacific Northwest – Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington – that seek to strengthen the region’s educational, social, spiritual, and cultural base in creative and sustainable ways. Visit www.murdocktrust.org.