Give Today

Gifts to CCMS can be made in many ways, depending on your preference. All are greatly appreciated.

  • Check/Cash: Checks should be made payable to CCMS or the Concord Community Music School, and mailed to 23 Wall St., Concord, NH 03301. Cash should not be mailed, but may be dropped off at the School during normal working hours. Making your gift by check or cash saves us processing fees, enabling more of your gift to directly support the music.
  • Credit card gifts: click here to make a donation today.
  • Gifts of stock: Utilizing securities, or stocks, rather than using a credit card or writing a check to make your gift can be advantageous to you. If you have stocks that have appreciated greatly in value, giving the stock itself (rather than selling it and giving us the proceeds) helps you avoid capital gains tax, as stock gifts to CCMS are tax-exempt. To make your gift of securities, please see the following directions (PDF)
  • Giving through Donor-Advised Funds: The donor-advised fund (DAF) is becoming an increasingly popular way to make a charitable gift. DAFs can provide you with immediate tax benefits while making your charitable giving easier. Here are two simple ways you can make a gift through your DAF:
    • Make an outright gift by suggesting a grant to the Concord Community Music School
    • Designate CCMS to receive all or a portion of the fund value upon the termination of the fund

You can select the option that best suits your philanthropic and financial goals while supporting the Concord Community Music School. Just contact your fund administrator to request a distribution or beneficiary form or download the appropriate form(s) from your administrator’s website.

If you include CCMS in your plans, please let us know and use our legal name and federal tax ID.

  • Legal name: Concord Community Music School, Tax ID #: 22-2552850
  • Current address: 23 Wall St., Concord, NH 03301

Setting up a Permanent Endowment: One of the best ways to ensure that your support for CCMS and its music programs continues, is to make a gift or series of gifts to establish a permanent fund, known as an endowment. Endowed funds are invested so that, over time, the original amount grows. Only a portion of the earnings from the invested fund is used to support the program each year, with the remaining earnings reinvested to ensure that inflation is off-set and the fund continues in perpetuity (forever!)

Endowed funds may be named for someone – a loved one, a beloved teacher, or an inspirational musician – and each year, when the funds are used, that individual will be remembered and honored. For more information on establishing an endowed fund, please contact give [@] ccmusicschool.org.

Designated gifts: Unrestricted gifts provide the greatest benefit to those participating in CCMS programs, as we can apply the funds where they are most needed. However, you may also wish to support one or more of our programs directly. Your gift may be designated in many ways. Among the ways you can designate a gift:

  • Scholarships to enable students of limited means to learn music
  • Outreach programs to the community, otherwise known as Music in the Community Initiatives (MICI)
  • Capital gifts to help us keep up our magnificent performing and teaching spaces
  • Gifts to help us maintain our many musical instruments
  • Support for a particular department or program (e.g. piano, voice, jazz, etc.)

To designate your gift to one of the above areas, either indicate this when you send in your check, or click on the appropriate option when you enter your credit card gift HERE. If you would like to designate your gift to something other than one of these options, please contact give [@] ccmusicschool.org.

Gifts in honor or in memory: Any gift may be made in honor or in memory of someone, whether a favorite teacher, a family member, a pet, or anyone you want to honor in this way. It’s also a great way to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, retirements, holidays or other special occasions. Just indicate this when you make your gift, along with any contact information if you’d like us to notify someone of the honor, and we’ll be sure to follow your wishes. It is our policy not to share the amount of the gift, just that you have given one in their honor.

IRA rollover contributions: Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) are wonderful assets from which to make a gift to CCMS. For those 72 years or older, you must take a required minimum distribution (RMD) each year. Consider using this to support CCMS. If you are in this age category, you can make a tax-free distribution directly from your IRA to CCMS (don’t take a distribution and then make a gift – it will eliminate the tax benefit). Any qualified contribution up to $100,000 counts toward your required minimum distribution. Your spouse may also make a qualified charitable distribution up to $100,000. To make a gift from your IRA, contact your IRA custodian (Fidelity, Merrill Lynch, Schwab, Vanguard, etc.) and ask the representative to send a check in the amount you desire (up to $100,000) payable to Concord Community Music School. They can send it to CCMS at 23 Wall St., Concord NH 03301.

Matching gifts: Many employers match charitable contributions made by their employees. This match can range from a 1-to-1 match to as much as a 3-to-1 match of your gift amount. If your employer has a gift-matching program  please contact the appropriate office in your company to get the forms needed to ensure the match. This is a great way to double or even triple the impact of your gift to CCMS!

Giving non-cash donations:

  • Gifts of insurance: If you have an insurance policy that is paid up and which you no longer need (perhaps you took it out when your kids were small), you can gift that to CCMS, or make the School your beneficiary of the policy. For more information, please write to give [@] ccmusicschool.org.
  • Gifts of assets / Gifts-in-Kind: If you have tangible assets that you don’t want anymore, and which the School can sell to support its programs, please let us know. This is a great way to provide scholarship support or help us purchase instruments. Some items that might be considered: high-end jewelry, antiques, working automobiles, and so forth. We cannot take everyday items such as household furniture or cars that no longer run, as the cost to sell these generally exceeds the remainder to be used to benefit the School.

To review our policy on making gifts-in-kind, please click here. To determine if your assets might make a good gift to CCMS, please write to give [@] ccmusicschool.org.

  • Gifts of instruments or music: CCMS has been fortunate to have been the beneficiary of many gifts of fine musical instruments. This enables us to use high-quality instruments to teach and to perform, and also enables us to have a number of instruments that we can lend to students who may not be able to afford their own instruments.
  • Gifts of pianos: CCMS is unable to accommodate any piano donations at this time. If you would like to send us a simple one page document at ccms [@] ccmusicschool.org with a few photos, a basic description, and your contact information, we will send it out to our faculty and other colleagues, as well as post your flyer on our bulletin boards. You may also want to consider checking in with local nursing homes, retirement communities, etc. 

If you have an instrument that you would like us to consider, please write to give [@] ccmusicschool.org. We will share the information with the appropriate department or faculty members so that a decision can be made as to whether the School can accept the gift. We will occasionally accept gifts of instruments that will be sold to support the relevant program; this can, however, affect your tax deduction.

At this time, we are not accepting gifts of sheet music, CDs, LPs, or other music-related items.

For more information, please write to give [@] ccmusicschool.org or call the Music School at (603) 228-1196. Thank you for your support!