Kate Edger Foundation

Education provides opportunity and has the power to create better outcomes.
It can inspire and impact whanau and communities.
It must be accessible to all.

Kate Edger was a pioneering champion of women's rights, the first woman in NZ to graduate (in 1877) and the second woman in the British Empire. 

The Kate Edger Foundation (KEF) honours Kate’s legacy by providing financial awards and assistance to fund the advancement, promotion and encouragement of education for women.

KEF believes in the power of education where equitable outcomes in education have been shown to be the key to improving intergenerational disadvantage, providing sustainable employment opportunities, improving pay equity and ensuring societal wellbeing.  

While it would be wonderful to support all, we feel by putting our focus and energy into supporting women only, the benefits will spread out to supporting all – families, whanau and communities. Women’s education has been shown to be a powerful force for transformation in families and communities. 

Our driving force is to empower women through education and we achieve this by funding scholarships and awards that help remove the financial barriers to study.  Awards range from $2,000 to $18,000.  And they are life-changing! Not just because they provide financial support and a stepping-stone to a career, but also because they provide women with validation. 

When someone believes in you, it’s easier to believe in yourself.  
And when you believe in yourself, anything in possible.

In the last 19 years, the Kate Edger Foundation (was Kate Edger Educational Charitable Trust) has granted over $10.5million of educational awards, and in doing so, we have reshaped the lives of more than 1,600 wahine.  But we haven’t done it alone.  Our social enterprise, The Graduation Place (was Academic Dress Hire, Auckland), has played a pivotal role with 100% of proceeds used to fund the Foundation.  These proceeds are generated from the hireage and sale of graduation (academic) regalia and legal attire.  

It is educational success from funding educational potential and we couldn’t be prouder.  

We also receive funding from bequests, endowments and our very generous sponsorship partners who, just like us, understand the power of education.

Without assistance from the Kate Edger Foundation, many of our awardees would not have the chance to pursue further study – nor the opportunity to uplift themselves, their whanau and their communities. 

The Foundation is governed by a volunteer Board of Trustees, with General Manager Nina Tomaszyk managing both KEF and social enterprise The Graduation Place (TGP).