Support Birch Creek
When you contribute to Birch Creek, your gift touches and often helps change the lives of promising young musicians. You may be inspired to give because music has personally graced your life and you want to pass the gift along. You may give to celebrate, honor, or memorialize the life of someone you love. You may give an annual gift or through a matching program with your employer. You may want to include a bequest in your will or a deferred gift in your estate planning.
We welcome your help in keeping music alive at Birch Creek!
Recurring Gifts: Become a Tempo Partner
Recurring gifts provide support for Birch Creek and offer the greatest flexibility for donors. Schedule a donation from your credit/debit card OR set up automatic withdrawal from your bank account to recur monthly, quarterly or annually. Please indicate your recurring donation when you complete the form online or call (920) 868-3763 for more information.
Gifts through May 1, 2025, are listed in the Program Book.
Updated through May 19, 2025.
TEMPO PARTNERS
Anonymous (2)
Sam and Vicky Carmen
Bob Shogren
Sarah and Mark Woerfel
50th Season Sponsorships
Help us celebrate our major milestone!
Join us as we celebrate Birch Creek’s 50th season in 2025! For this remarkable, celebratory season, we are enlisting the help of our key donors to support season sponsorships. These sponsorships are separate from concert sponsorships and will afford Birch Creek to invite world class guest artists for each session, to commission pieces for premier performances, to upgrade the Melzer Gallery with a digital mural and to underwrite a celebratory video presented at each academy concert. In addition to these exciting endeavors for 2025, Birch Creek will host a gala in the Birch Creek Dutton Concert Barn on Saturday, September 13, 2025.
Please download the Commitment Form today!
Play it Forward Annual Fund
The support of our donors helps us continue to fulfill our mission: to engage and nurture promising young and adult musicians through immersive, performance-based instruction in a professional, mentoring environment. By empowering them to achieve their full potential, we foster excellence in musical education and performance, and enhance our reputation as a leader in the field.
The Play It Forward Annual Fund is the organization’s annual fund used for operational expenses and is the fund that bridges the gap between tuition paid by families and the true cost of program delivery. Did you know that every student automatically receives $2,700 in reduced tuition because of your support to this annual fund?
Actual Cost of a Student’s Education: $5,100
Play It Forward Annual Support: $2,700
Student/Family’s Cost: $2,400
We want to ensure that our tuition fees are affordable to most families by covering the gap between the cost of educating a Birch Creek student and the family’s out-of-pocket costs, while also raising additional tuition assistance dollars to help those for whom even our subsidized tuition is a challenge.
Donation Levels
Leadership Circle: $10,000 and above
Director’s Circle: $2,500 to $9,999
Faculty Circle: $1,000 to $2,499
Encore: $250 to $999
Mentor’s Circle: $100 to $249
Bravo: $1 to $99
Annual Fund Gifts In Support of Birch Creek Received Since May 1, 2025
Gifts through May 1, 2025, are listed in the Program Book.
Updated through May 19, 2025.
Leadership Circle – $10,000 and above
Steven and Jackie Kane
Charlotte Lukes
Director’s Circle – $2,500 to $9,999
Dick Johnson
Suzi Spanbauer Schmidt Jones
Faculty Circle – $1,000 to $2,499
Charles McKee
Faculty Circle – $1,000 to $2,499
Encore – $250 to $999
Anonymous
Greg and Becky Britton
Jim and Barebara Flint
Steven and Mary Gomoll
Stephaen and Wendy Case
Ellsworth and Carla Peterson Charitable
Foundation
Mentor’s Circle – $100 to $249
Anonymous (2)
Axos Cleaning
Robert W.Baird & Co. Incorporated
Molly Chann
Bob Shogren
Bravo – $1 to $99
Sheldon Gulinson and Carol Sobel
Phillis Wilson
Sara and Mark Woerfel
Sam and Vicky Carmen
Concert Sponsorship
Support student education by becoming a concert sponsor.
Sponsorships support concerts at Birch Creek that directly correlate with our academic programs, and sponsors have the benefits of program book recognition, media mention, complimentary tickets and reserved seating. Call our office if you are interested in sponsoring a concert: (920) 868-3763.
Endowment
The Birch Creek Endowment establishes a firm financial base that ensures the stability of Birch Creek, its educational programs for young musicians and concerts for the community long into the future.
The Endowment, managed by the Door County Community Foundation, consists of four funds:
Building for Tomorrow Fund – used for capital expenditures
Lifetime for Education Fund – supports essential educational components such as faculty salaries, musical instruments, library acquisitions and guest artist fees
Now and Forever Fund – supplements donations for day-to-day operations
Scholarships Forever Fund – partially underwrites student tuition through scholarships
A minimum gift of $5,000 is required to establish a sub-fund within one of these four Funds. The donor’s principal is not touched and new gifts may be added to increase its value at any time. Once a sub-fund reaches a principal value of $20,000, lasting naming rights become available and include the naming of faculty chairs, academic programs and buildings. Birch Creek will work with donors to reach a $5,000 minimum over time, and to help their sub-fund grow thereafter to attain naming rights benefits. A few options for giving could include the required minimum distribution from an IRA and gifts of stock.
For information on setting up a sub-fund in the Birch Creek Endowment, please call Bob Shogren at (920) 868-3763. Smaller gifts in any amount are welcome at any time and are permanently placed in one of four General Funds of the Endowment as designated by the donor.
Endowment Contributions since May 1, 2025
Contributions received prior to May 1, 2025 are listed in the program book. Endowment contributions recieved are listed below (current as of May 19, 2025
ENDOWMENT
Building for Tomorrow Fund
Lifetime for Education Fund
Greg and Becky Britton Sub-fund
Greg and Becky Britton
Now and Forever Fund
Scholarships Forever Fund
Richard and Jan Johnson Sub-fund
Dick Johnson
TRIBUTES
Memorials
Honors
SCHOLARSHIPS
Molly Chann
Sarah and Mark Woerfel
IN-KIND
The Legacy Circle
Guardians of the Future
2024 Legacy Circle Program and Membership Book
The Legacy Circle was created to help guarantee Birch Creek’s financial stability far into the future. A planned gift is a resource upon which Birch Creek can rely for years to come. Large and small, these gifts are vital to the success of Birch Creek’s future. Many donors have found that time spent considering what to give, as well as when and how to structure their contributions, can help them make more meaningful gifts while meeting personal planning goals as well.
“I have placed Birch Creek in my will.”
For more than fifteen years, Door County resident Charlotte Lukes has demonstrated her close involvement with –and commitment to – Birch Creek through estate planning that will continue her support of Birch Creek in the future.
Please call Bob Shogren at (920) 868-3763 for more information.
Many Birch Creek donors utilize one or more of the following planning options:
Will Bequests
Charitable Remainder Unitrusts
Retirement Packages
Life Insurance Policies
Charitable Lead Trusts
Gifts of Real Estate
Capital Gifts
Over the last several years several exciting projects were initiated and completed that updated and stabilized the infrastructure of our campus. This effort required multiple grantors and donors to help us reach our goals. Their support helped us overcome infrastructure inefficiencies while continuing to provide a safe environment for our students and the public.
Your support is essential and critical! Become a part of keeping the magic alive in the barn and all over campus. Just choose Play It Forward from the drop-down menu on our online donation form, or note infrastructure on your check. At any time, you may call at (920) 868-3763 for ways to help.
Then … wait for the changes to begin!
Projects include:
Rebuilding the barn’s North upper wall
New theater stage lighting in the concert barn
Upgrading electrical service and burying power lines
Bringing high speed internet to the property for business operations and instruction
Installing a campus master keying system
Purchase and installing a new generator
Renovate living quarters with a full bathroom in the upper granary
Measuring room acoustics and building acoustic bistro tables and window seats to enhance sound absorption in Juniper Hall
A new well to provide back up to a 50 year old well
Migration of all business operations to the Cloud
Redesign of the organization’s website
Provide the equipment and technology to Live Stream concert videos to parents
New theater house lighting in the concert barn.
New vinyl flooring in the Teaching Assistant residence hall
Strengthened wi-fi signal across campus
Cement slab adjacent to the dining room for outdoor seating
Outdoor pavillion covering the outdoor dining areas
Sidewalk from west accessbile parking to gazebo and concert barn and to the public restrooms
Advertise in Our Program Book
Business owners and organizations are invited to partner with Birch Creek by advertising in our program book.
The digital program, which you can open and browse through, is a flip book which includes ads (with links to each advertiser’s website), donor recognition, Birch Creek history, concert schedules and features on programs and outreach. Birch Creek advertisers also receive a print ad in the physical program book which is distributed to thousands of concertgoers throughout the summer and fall at Birch Creek. Contact our Marketing Manager at (920) 868-3763 or marketing@birchcreek.org for questions regarding ad space in next season’s program book.
We hope you enjoy the Birch Creek Digital Program Book. Try our links – advertisers, faculty, concerts and more!
