The Greenville Concert Band Endowment

The Board of Directors is excited to announce an opportunity for you to help us create a lasting legacy for the Greenville Concert Band. The Greenville Concert Band Endowment is a permanent fund intended to provide a continuous, dependable source of income to pursue our mission to the Upstate of South Carolina. We started this project thanks to a generous bequest from the estate of Fred Horton, a former band member, and you too can be a part of this adventure. Our goal is to raise $100,000 by the end of this 2025-26 concert season. Great news: we’re already halfway there! This endowment helps assure that an active and thriving community band is always here to contribute to the quality of life in Greenville, making music long after today’s musicians and audience are gone.

Why an Endowment?

We are grateful to our many supporters who have generously donated year-in and year-out to keep us going. But, we have goals and needs that we have not fully met even though our income has exceeded expenses over the last several years. The endowment will better position us to attain these goals, such as:

• Procuring new equipment and percussion instruments;
• Securing larger and better concert venues;
• Renting appropriate climate-controlled storage for our equipment;
• Compensating our Music Director at a level more consistent with his value to us.

The Founders Circle

We invite those of you who are so blessed and inclined to join our Founder’s Circle with a gift of $5000 or more. These keystone contributions will be accepted until the date of our season-ending concert, May 22, 2026. Founders will be permanently recognized with their names attached to a plaque that will be displayed at concerts, and at our future home wherever that may be. Founder’s Circle donors will also be recognized in program publications, on the Endowment page of our website and at the May 22 concert.

How much is needed?

The band has provided $50,000 now toward the $100,000 needed to initially fund the endowment. Thanks to some generous early supporters, we can match the next $17,500 donated, 1:1, so every dollar you donate until that cap is reached will be matched by another dollar. Our goal is to reach $100,000 by May 22. Of course, donations will be accepted at any level you are inclined to give, and donations will be always accepted as we seek to grow the fund into the future. We only ask that if you have not given to our general operating fund in the past, you start with a simple donation to the band.

How does it work?

Our Endowment fund is managed by the Community Foundation of Greenville, a nonprofit that facilitates Upstate nonprofits, foundations and donor-advised funds to build their legacies. The CFG has been doing this for over 50 years and has built a collective fund of over $140 million. Donations to the Greenville Concert Band Endowment are tax-deductible and are now accepted at the website of the CFG (see below) - simply select the Greenville Concert Band as your target organization.  If you are not ready to donate now but would like to consider a legacy gift in your will or retirement distributions, the CFG can facilitate this kind of giving as well as non-cash gifts such as appreciated stock.