Neighborhood Music School will announce today that it has received a donation of $100,000 from First Niagara, which will be the presenting sponsor for the school’s yearlong centennial celebration.
The donation will fund events surrounding the centennial celebration and will help the school address four areas of priority, according to its development director, Alice-Anne Harwood.
The Neighborhood Music School administration, Harwood said, is looking at “program expansion,” including its financial-aid offerings. Harwood said the school currently earmarks $225,000 to provide financial aid to about 350 students.
Harwood said funds from First Niagara will also support infrastructure and technological upgrades, the development of a pedagogical training program for the school’s faculty and teaching artists, and a marketing effort geared toward building the organization’s endowment.
Harwood said, “We’ve had a really long relationship with NewAlliance (Bank),” which was acquired by First Niagara last year.
NewAlliance Bank, Harwood said, supported the school’s 2004 capital campaign with a $250,000 donation, which was met with public funds.
A number of First Niagara employees serve on Neighborhood Music School’s Board of Directors and/or have children who study at the school, Harwood said. These folks, she said, are “passionate” about Neighborhood Music School’s mission.
Through such “existing relationships,” Harwood said, the school’s administration, in planning the centennial celebration, approached bank principals and “found a lot of parallels” in terms of community-engagement priorities.
Through First Niagara’s sponsorship of Neighborhood Music School’s centennial celebration, “we’re forwarding both of our missions,” Harwood said.