Earlier this year the efforts of the Emmanuel Centre Capital Appeal Committee were recognised in a national award for best practice. Emmanuel College established a campaign committee lead by Emmanuel’s Director of Development, Mrs Carole Reid, who was originally tasked with running a capital appeal to raise $1.5 million towards the cost of the $9.5 million Emmanuel Centre project. As time marched on the cost of the project grew with the inclusion of the Industrial Skills Centre. This decision added another $300,000 to the project and hence the Appeal target was raised to $1.8 million. To date the College has raised $1.9 million.

This amazing achievement was recognized by “Educate Plus” - the professional body for those who work in advancement within all levels of the education sector. Educate Plus named the Emmanuel Centre Capital Appeal as a winner of the 2016 Capital Campaign Award. The Award recognised best practice, noting the quality of the campaign and the achievements of the Appeal Committee over the last 12 months.

“This award is a testament to the generosity of the people of the Warrnambool district,” said Principal Peter Morgan. “Like the founders of our predecessor schools, St Ann’s and CBC we called on the community for help. The community has responded with a huge vote of confidence in Emmanuel College. This is an enormous achievement, especially when you consider that we are experiencing a time of exceptionally low interest rates and following directly on from the largest fundraising campaign ever held in our district - Peter’s Project. We really give thanks to all of the past students, current families and staff members, businesses and philanthropic foundations who have all contributed to raise an amount that we were told could not be achieved.”

Neil McWhanell, CEO of Educate Plus said when he presented the award at the Educate Plus International Conference, “It was a delight to discover that a regional school in Victoria, with a number of constraints facing it, could take on the challenge of a major capital works program and successfully conduct a relatively sophisticated capital appeal in support of it.

We applaud the structured approach outlined, the adherence to process, which clearly followed and the observation that the benefits from this capital raising will include a whole changed attitude towards philanthropy at Emmanuel College in the longer term.

It was clear that Campaign Leadership and the training of it was critical and the extent to which costs were controlled was commendable. Community outreach and engagement as a key success factor are to be applauded. Congratulations on an outstanding fundraising exercise.”