The story of Birch Creek Music Performance Center, Inc. begins with co-founders Jim and Fran Dutton's mission to provide intensive, performance-based instruction to promising young musicians by immersing them in a professional, mentoring environment.  The Duttons started their summer music academy in 1976 with 12 students and one concert on 40 acres of farmland in rural Egg Harbor.
 
Thirty-three years later, Birch Creek has evolved into a vital organization that has remained firmly centered on its founders' mission, while earning a national reputation for excellence in music education for youth ages 13 through 19 years old.
 
Nationally known performers and educators from around the country return to Birch Creek each year as faculty members to teach during the day and to perform in nightly concerts for the public. The varied backgrounds, nationalities, and cultural heritages of Birch Creek's faculty/performers and students are not only instructive from a musical viewpoint, but from a sociological one as well, informing Door County audiences about diverse regions and races in the context of music.
 
The concerts in the Dutton Concert Barn each summer thrill concertgoers with the music genres of symphony, percussion & steel band, and big band jazz.  Yet, behind the scenes, sound fiscal management has been essential in Birch Creek's steady success, including the establishment in 2000 of four Birch Creek Endowment Funds within the Door County Community Foundation.  Birch Creek was a leader in the Door County arts community with this fiscal strategy, providing other arts organizations with an example of a varied approach to funds management.  The funds are:
 
Now and Forever Fund - to supplement donations for general operations made through appeals three times annually
Scholarships Forever Fund - to augment annual gifts to the Scholarship Fund
Lifetime Education Fund - to support essential educational components such as faculty salaries, musical instruments, library acquisitions, and guest artist fees
Building for Tomorrow Fund - to supplement annual donations for capital expenditures
 
The endowment funds, together with other fundraising strategies, establish a firm financial base that ensures the stability of Birch Creek and its services to young musicians and to the Door County community long into the future.
 
Birch Creek entrusts the administration of its endowment funds to the Door County Community Foundation.  The Community Foundation aggregates the endowed assets of many Door County charities and family foundations, collectively investing them as a larger, more diversified pool.  The Community Foundation also facilitates complex gifts and estate gifts to charities that serve our region.
 
To learn more about how you can incorporate the Birch Creek endowment funds as a beneficiary in your estate plans, contact Birch Creek at (920) 868-3763, or the Community Foundation at (920) 746-1786.