Giving Initiatives

How can you make an impact at NEC with a philanthropic gift in support of a specific program or project?  

We welcome the opportunity to partner with you and your foundation, estate, or corporate representative to identify an initiative that aligns with your philanthropic mission.

For more information, please contact Tricia Cheverie at tricia.cheverie@necmusic.edu or 617-585-1719. 

Examples of Giving Initiatives you may support at NEC:

Catalyst Fund

 

NEC is pioneering a new model of musicianship to ensure our graduates have lives of meaning, mastery, relevance and impact.

Gifts to the Catalyst Fund will provide resources that build and sustain the growth, evolution, and impact of educating musicians that matter. Click here to learn more about the Catalyst Fund initiatives. 

 

Scholarship Support

NEC students seek mastery and demonstrate excellence on their own terms. They perform Bach and Bluegrass; they win Grammys and Guggenheims, Tchaikovsky Competitions and MacArthur Awards.

Scholarship gifts are a profound way to support the ambitious choices these students make for themselves and allow them to transform the world with a musical life.  The unique chemistry of an NEC education, which is grounded in joyful, supported, respectful, collaborative relationships, cannot happen without scholarship resources.

  • Named, endowed scholarship funds for the NEC Preparatory School begin at $50,000. This Prep scholarship fund will exist in perpetuity and will offset a portion of a NEC Prep student’s tuition costs on an annual basis.
  • Named, endowed scholarship funds for College students at NEC begin at $100,000. At this level, the fund will exist at NEC in perpetuity and will offset a portion of a NEC college student’s tuition costs on an annual basis.
  • A gift of $1,000,000 creates a named and endowed Presidential Scholarship, the most coveted campus scholarship, providing full-tuition for one of NEC’s top students every year. This fund will exist in perpetuity and is announced each year at convocation.
 

Student Need Fund

The Student Need Fund was created to ensure that every NEC student can focus equitably on their musical education, even when facing unanticipated financial hardship. If you or someone supporting your education loses a job; if you have to leave campus for an emergency and don't have the travel funds; if you require unexpected medical care — none of these financial challenges should interrupt your place in the NEC community. 

The Student Need Fund is supported by donations from alumni, trustees, faculty, staff, parents, friends and even other students who are dedicated to helping every student successfully reach the end of their musical journey at NEC. These funds are designed to provide temporary, short-term financial assistance to currently enrolled, high-financial-need students who are balancing demanding educational requirements with unanticipated or emergency financial situations. The expectation is that this is a one-time funding situation to assist with, for example, an academic (e.g., books), musical (e.g. instrument repair), or medical emergency (e.g., unanticipated ER bill). The award limit is $1,000 per student per semester. 

 

Support for NEC Students in the Community

A recognized trailblazer, New England Conservatory’s Community Performances and Partnerships (CPP) Program remains one of the premier programs in the nation for engaging conservatory students with their community through meaningful partnerships and high quality training.

For more than a decade, CPP has served community members—close to 17,000 in total in the just the 2017-2018 academic year— through over 450 annual events that reach across ages, neighborhoods, ethnicities, and economic disparities in the city of Boston and beyond.

Simultaneously, CPP provides NEC students with a vital opportunity to explore what it means to be a musician living in and contributing to community life, all within an atmosphere of supportive mentoring, professional development, and experiential learning.

Philanthropic support is needed to expand CPP partnerships in Boston and further afield, and to continue to build the vision for CPP and NEC’s musical future. 

 

Support for Entrepreneurial Musicianship

The Entrepreneurial Musicianship (EM) department offers hands-on training in dynamic, forward-looking skills and practices, preparing NEC students and NEC alumni to transform the world with a musical life.  NEC’s EM Department is a leader in the field of entrepreneurial musicianship, and its courses and programs are a distinctive and important part of an NEC education.

Philanthropic gifts will enhance the support for students and alumni in areas that include providing project grants for entrepreneurial ideas, offering paid artistic internships, and bolstering the Nova Fellows program. The Nova Fellows program offers select students an immersive opportunity over the course of one academic year to use their classical music background to develop as musicians and explore culturally relevant opportunities to connect with today's shifting artistic world.