Besides monetary donations, we can use your help at special events, your attendance at concerts and recitals, your support through programs such as Essex Savings Bank's Community Investment Program, and your new student referrals. And don't forget to notify your employer of your gifts to us if they match gifts to non-profits.
If you have been happy with our instructors and programs, please be sure to recommend CMS to your friends.
Here are some specific ways you can help:
Gifts to the Scholarship Fund -- Each year, we distribute approximately $12,000 in need-based tuition assistance to students of all ages. We hold a variety of fund-raising events each year to replenish these funds.
Gifts to the Capital Endowment Fund -- As CMS grows, we will need additional space, equipment and facilities. Gifts to our Capital Endowment Fund are earmarked for future expansion.
Gifts to the Operating Fund -- Our Operating Fund is supplied by student tuition each semester. Gifts with this designation help support ongoing programs such as our ensemble underwriting and our summer musical theater, and they help keep tuition increases at a minimum.
Gifts of musical instruments -- Instruments donated to the school will be sold to buyers, kept as loaners, or passed on to students in need of an instrument. We are happy to accept donated violins in any condition, as we have someone to make necessary repairs. Other instruments that might need costly repair are not particularly helpful to us, but if they are in good playable condition we will gladly accept them.
Pianos are too large for us to house in most cases, although we’d be happy to try to connect donors with students who need instruments. We would be honored to receive a concert grand piano, and possibly a baby grand. Please speak to our Director if you think you have an instrument that could be put to good use.
Gifts of your time and talents -- If you have some special skills that you think would be helpful to us, please let us know! We love good ideas, but be careful -- we're likely to take you up on your offer!
Volunteer on our Parents Committee -- We keep a list of willing helpers, and would love to add your name. You might be called upon to help with refreshments at a concert, to distribute posters around your town, or to help stuff envelopes for a big mailing. Please let us know where your interests lie, and we will call on you as appropriate. Our board member Anne Easton coordinates our volunteers.
And thank you in advance for your time, talents and treasures!
Through Leave A Legacy Connecticut, you can designate Community Music School as a beneficiary of your estate - For information, click here:
You Can Make a Difference