Give with impact
Connect your passion for the Jacobs School with the opportunity to make a difference that is meaningful to you. There are a number of areas you can support that will make an immediate or long-term impact.
Annual Giving to the Dean's Fund
Each year, the school encounters new and unforeseen opportunities that can profoundly affect students, audiences, and the larger musical world. The Dean's fund helps the advancement of the Jacobs School in performance opportunities, the hiring of internationally renowned faculty and performers, provides world class resources, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences for the betterment of the school and our students.
Because no one can anticipate what these exciting opportunities will be, the Dean's Fund provides the Jacobs School with the flexibility to respond at a moment's notice. Donors to the Dean's Fund give the school the extraordinary power to seize breakthrough opportunities as they emerge, delivering support precisely when it is most needed.
Join the Dean's Circle
The efforts of partners in the Dean's Circle are essential to the sustained excellence and unsurpassed growth of the Jacobs School. Gifts to the Dean's Circle have an enormous impact on our students, enabling them to further shape the cultural life of our nation.
Dean's Circle Membership Levels
- Visionary Member: $10,000+
- Strategic Member: $5,000 - $9,999
- Supporting Member: $2,500 - $4,999
- Contributing Member: $1,000 - $2,499
Scholarships and fellowships
Some performers were born to make music. It's evident in their talent, dedication, and ability to connect with an audience. But determination and support from family and friends does not always fulfill the needs of every student. Even with monumental capabilities and a persistent drive, sometimes the students’ lack of resources outweighs their passions. This is the where the assistance of our generous donors is absolutely vital.
Nothing is more affirming for an aspiring musician, artist, or pedagogue than receiving a scholarship to the Jacobs School of Music. For a student, there is not a more powerful vote of confidence that receiving such an honor from the nation’s top school. Their hopes and dreams are confirmed, and a career path in music is made tangible by your generous support.
Your gift endowing a scholarship for an undergraduate or a fellowship for a graduate student puts to rest every doubt that threatened to hold back that most promising artist. Your endowment, which continues in perpetuity, goes on year after year to transform lives. Not only are your recipients able to explore and master their craft within the world-class academic environment of Indiana University, but your gift also reaches these musicians' countless audiences who are immeasurably nourished by your dedication to keeping music alive.
Endowed faculty positions
Endowed faculty positions, which bear the name of the donor or another individual or family that the donor has designated, support the work of the world's preeminent performers and teachers. Considered the most prestigious of all appointments, endowed faculty positions have the power to attract and retain the most coveted and acclaimed talent. For many professors, these titles are even more important than salary, because they convey such distinction and esteem.
These positions can take the form of chairs, which support faculty salaries, or professorships that support the professor's studio, research, travel, or other critical needs. Donors may create endowed positions for a particular instrument or area, or may leave positions open to support the most deserving candidate.
Because endowments create their own funding streams, these positions are not affected by the uncertainties of budget cuts and state appropriations. There is no surer way to continue to attract faculty of the highest caliber to the Jacobs School than with an endowed faculty position.
Special programs and priorities
Giving to the William and Gayle Cook Music Library means keeping alive the genius of past masters so their insights can educate, instruct, and inspire today's performers and music scholars. Containing treasures such as original, annotated scores by historic composers, early string music from the 1600s, and the entire contents of Leonard Bernstein's studio, the Music Library connects today's students and scholars to the rich traditions that make music so potent and meaningful.
Friends of Music
The Society of the Friends of Music is a volunteer organization dedicated to the support of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music through its student scholarship program.
The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music is the finest institution of its kind in the world. Its faculty has included some of the 20th century’s most distinguished performers and teachers, passing on a treasured legacy of music to a new generation in the 21st century. Students from 47 countries currently attend the Jacobs School of Music, studying and preparing for careers on concert and opera stages, in recording studios, and in the classroom. More apply every year, sharing the same dream; for many, that dream is difficult to realize because of the cost of such a prized education.
In 1964, The Society of the Friends of Music was founded to help realize those dreams. Conceived by then-leaders Chancellor Herman B Wells and School of Music Dean Wilfred C. Bain, its sole purpose is to raise funds for scholarships in support of exceptionally talented students who might otherwise be unable to attend the Jacobs School of Music. In addition, the Friends of Music raises money for travel grants to enable students to participate in international competitions that help further their careers. Over the decades, our members have generated hundreds of thousands of scholarship dollars through its annual giving campaign, special gifts and events.
Contact us
Jacobs School of Music Development Office
Music Practice Building
1024 East 3rd Street
812-855-4737
Executive Director of External Affairs
Melissa Dickson
812-855-4656
Associate Director of Development
Derek Dixon
812-856-5951
Assistant Director of Annual Fund & Stewardship
Mariann Hosler
812-856-9994
Director of Major Gifts
Daniel M. Morris
812-855-1850
Development Coordinator
Liza Saracina
812-855-4737