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January 24, 2012: 780 Argyle Street, Peterborough, ON K9H 5T2 1-800-295-6368

The document discusses the financial challenges facing Master's College & Seminary, including the high costs of operating in Peterborough, subsidizing student costs, and a residual debt of $2.1 million with over $100,000 in annual interest payments. It announces a potential $600,000 matching donation to help pay down debt, if the school can raise matching funds by December 2014. It also explains hiring a development person to help identify donors and ensure the future of the school.

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92 views3 pages

January 24, 2012: 780 Argyle Street, Peterborough, ON K9H 5T2 1-800-295-6368

The document discusses the financial challenges facing Master's College & Seminary, including the high costs of operating in Peterborough, subsidizing student costs, and a residual debt of $2.1 million with over $100,000 in annual interest payments. It announces a potential $600,000 matching donation to help pay down debt, if the school can raise matching funds by December 2014. It also explains hiring a development person to help identify donors and ensure the future of the school.

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January 24, 2012

Friends, I do not take lightly the privilege of regular communication via the districts through Presidential Matters. Because I get to send out information I strive to keep the reports short and informative. Please let me apologize in advance for the length of this weeks communiqu. However, the content is really important and there was no way to shorten it and make it clear or meaningful. Thanks for your patience and I would welcome you to read the entire document. Just in passing, we are taking a few students to Israel, some for interest and some as a course, and you would be welcome to join us. It is a rush trip but the cost is a little less than normal as we are staying in good three star hotels and it is geared to students. However, what a great way to spend 8 daystraveling with students. If you are interested the trip is available for viewing on our website. Our school is on the road to total recovery. Attendance is up. Interest from prospective students is on a new high. The school itself is doing what it is mandated to do. The students rave about their experience here, the professors, the staff, the social life and the transformation under God. Peterborough is home and the building is working well for us. There is so much to be positive about. If it is this good then why did I say we are still on the road to total recovery instead of having arrived? The simple reality is we still face significant financial challenges. There are three levels of concern from a financial perspective: 1. The simple fact is it costs more to live in Peterborough. We pay for beds whether we have students in them or not. We subsidize students who are in the beds as it costs us more for room and board than we can actually charge the students unless we want to price ourselves out of their range. As enrolment continues to grow then the amount needed each year will reduce accordingly and within just a couple of years the need to raise extra funds will no longer be necessary. Last year we had to raise an extra $300,000 and I am so glad to report that we actually raised just over $305,000. This year the budget calls for an extra $250,000 that has to be raised but because we received a tax rebate from the city of Peterborough for $50,000 we
780 Argyle Street, Peterborough, ON K9H 5T2 www.mcs.edu 1-800-295-6368

Masters College & Seminary

actually only need to raise $200,000. I am so thankful for the support of the districts who own this school. They have risen to the challenge and are raising this money on our behalf. They are just about to roll out a new plan to raise this money. It is a very good plan and we are trusting for it to work well on behalf of the school. Our fiscal year is June 1 to the end of May in the next calendar year so because we are already almost eight months into this fiscal year we will need to see a strong and immediate response. As we no longer own any equity then every budget has to balance and we will need to meet this number to show financial stability and viability. 2. During the journey when the school faced year after year of financial challenge the internal operations regarding staff, resources, technology and other essentials to a healthy organization were either kept on hold or actually reduced. As we have become healthier in student enrolments the need to fix this internal operational shortfall becomes critical. To address this need I have entered a journey this fall and early winter to visit 105 churches who have the potential to support our college or who could increase their support. The response from pastors has been incredibly positive. At the time of this writing I have had 72 visits with pastors and I am so thankful for a warm reception and a willingness to help from a majority of them. We need to raise another 75 thousand dollars to actually live as a school from an internal operations perspective. I am asking the pastors I visit to put us in their budget. About 75% of the pastors I have visited have said yes and the support is already happening. Once the funds are in place it will become part of the ongoing support of the college and this kind of effort will not be required to the same degree in the years ahead. We are getting there. (Just a note: if every church tithed to their district then we would not need to raise any extra money as the support of the districts would meet the needs of the college out of the tithes of local churches. However because not all churches tithe then we are forced to raise extra funds to make budgets work.) 3. After the sale of the building and upon our return to Peterborough we were left with a residual debt of 2.1 million dollars. We pay more than 100 thousand dollars a year in interest on the debt. The Board of Governors, in order to lead the college forward, has initiated a strategic plan to address this debt along with a number of other ways to enhance the future of the school. In the midst of this journey a potential miracle has occurred. An individual donor has offered the college a onetime gift of $600,000. It does have two strings attached. In the first place the donor will only give us the amount we raise in a matching contribution up to the $600,000. If we raise ten dollars then we will receive ten dollars. If it is 50 thousand then that is what we will receive. The second condition is that these funds be used for debt reduction. That is a miracle all by itself. The donor has given us to the end of December 2014 to raise these funds. We really feel we have gone to churches and alumni and supporters of our school often enough that it is not reasonable to ask them to give even more. It is also impossible for those who work at Masters to take on one more task. We are still understaffed in a number of areas. We feel that we need to try and find significant donors who will hear the heart of the school and
780 Argyle Street, Peterborough, ON K9H 5T2 www.mcs.edu 1-800-295-6368

Masters College & Seminary

get a burden for its future. As a result we felt we needed to have the help of a development person to identify ways and means to find the kind of people who could help us raise these funds and ensure the future of our school. Can you imagine with us three years from now having raised the needed 600 thousand and having it matched by the donor and the college being 1.2 million dollars less in debt than we are now. If you hear we have appointed a development person this is true and this is the reason why. We trust the money they help us raise will more than cover their costs and will allow us to not miss this incredible gift opportunity. In the middle of this journey we just had our accreditation visit with ABHE, (The Association for Biblical Higher Education), our accrediting agency. They were very positive about our school in many ways. One of the things they noted was our understanding of why we are here and what our mission is within our fellowship. We want to train a new generation of Pentecostal leaders and pastors. They affirmed our vision and our commitment to it. And it is happening daily in the lives of our students. We know why we exist and I believe we do it well. We just have a hurdle or two to get there. I believe we will. Thanks for believing in our school and its future.

Blessings, Wdm

780 Argyle Street, Peterborough, ON K9H 5T2 www.mcs.edu 1-800-295-6368

Masters College & Seminary

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