The 1878 Legacy Society

The 1878 Legacy Society was created to recognize the generosity of individuals and families who have made or provided for gifts to The Music Hall in their estate plans. 1878 Legacy Society members, through their planning and generosity, will ensure the long-term financial health of The Music Hall for generations to come. The most common planned gifts include bequests, charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, and pooled income funds.

Dennis and Mary Fink moved back north from Washington, D.C. when they retired. Great lovers of art and music, they were concerned about a culture gap opening in their lives. The Music Hall, Mary Fink said, was "really a cultural oasis, albeit one with springs poking out of the seats." This was in the early days of Music Hall renovations, days when people brought their own seat cushions, like they were going to a football game.

When the Music Hall was raising funds to refurbish the seating, Mary and Dennis Fink were quick to chip in - sponsoring two seats in memory of Dennis Fink's parents. They have been avid members and supporters of the Music Hall through many such endeavors and improvements since.

And this year, they have made a gift to the Music Hall that will help to support that cultural oasis far into the future. The Finks have established a $100,000 Charitable Gift Annuity to support the Music Hall. The gift will augment a New Hampshire Charitable Foundation fund that supports the Music Hall.

"It's what I would call a signifying event - that the Music Hall is going to continue to give joy, inspire, and offer beauty and reflection to the community well into the future," said Music Hall Executive Director Patricia Lynch. "It gives us a great deal of confidence as we move forward." The Finks, she said, are "lighting the way for others to think about their own legacy by being open about what they're doing. That explicit leadership...makes this gift so significant. We're tremendously grateful."

Dennis Fink said he and Mary have derived much enjoyment from the Music Hall, and are keenly interested " in keeping something like that alive for a long time." The Finks admire the Music Hall's commitment to exposing children to the arts, and its overall role in the community - "What it is and what it stands for," Mary Fink said. "It allows people who have not been exposed to any kind of art" to learn, in the unique ways that the arts can convey, "What the world's all about."