BLUEPRINT:2030
In December 2023, CIM successfully completed its Blueprint:100 strategic plan.
Building on that plan’s success, this new plan affirms CIM’s Mission, Vision, and Institutional Learning Goals, and identifies a new “Prevailing Reality” which will guide the Institute’s strategic focus.
Mission: Empower the world’s most talented classical music students to fulfill their dreams and potential.
Vision: To be the future of classical music.
Learning Goals:
• PERFORM, CREATE , and SHARE MUSIC with technical prowess and informed, compelling artistry in the relentless quest for the highest level of excellence.
• EXHIBIT THE PROFESSIONAL SKILLS of the 21st-century musician through coursework, co-curricular and experiential activities.
• EVALUATE , REASON, and MAKE DECISIONS in your personal and professional life using BROAD-BASED KNOWLEDGE.
STRATEGIC IMPERATIVE 1: Student Achievement
Ensure that CIM students achieve the highest levels of artistry and career readiness, supported by measurable outcomes and continuous improvement.
HOW WE ACHIEVE THIS
• Vision casting: Define and communicate what top 21st-century music careers mean and use those definitions to shape student and institutional goals.
• Conservatory: Ensure CIM’s curriculum, pedagogy, and programs consistently prepare students for tomorrow’s professional landscape.
• Joint Music Program: Conduct a comprehensive review of the CWRU partnership to assess its current value and effectiveness.
• Academy and Summer Institute: Build the CIM Academy and Summer Institute into premier, consistent recruitment pipelines.
• Career readiness: Place career envisioning and planning at the center of every CIM student’s journey, beginning at orientation.
• Tabula Rasa: Building on CIM’s “Blank Slate” transformational school-size approach, assess and articulate an updated relationship between school size and scholarships to maximize our investment in each student’s training, career prospects, and long-term success.
STRATEGIC IMPERATIVE 3: Business Model
Test and implement a diversified mix of achievable, sustainable revenue channels to ensure a financially viable and programmatically optimized CIM.
HOW WE ACHIEVE THIS
• Conservatory enrollment: Achieve and maintain an economically driven balance among orchestral and non-orchestral areas of study.
• Revenue generating offerings: Test and pursue a suite of secondary majors and areas of study which expand career readiness.
• Pipeline programs enrollment contribution: Increase Academy, Summer Institute, and Continuing Education tuition through rates and purposeful volume growth.
• Philanthropic conditions: Achieve the annual and endowment fundraising required for the next phase of enrollment balancing, with CIM’s Trustees as pacesetters and by doubling the size of CIM’s Governing Member program.
• Other earned incomes: Increase rental income and ticket sales, growing these sources consistent with the financial planning model.
• Plan for our people: Build and achieve a three-year financial planning model that returns CIM to fiscal balance, prioritizing student scholarship resources followed by employee compensation and benefits.
• Facilities: Review, refine, and fund phase II of the Kulas Hall/capital projects campaign, restoring select campus spaces to the CIM standard.
MANDATE:
Return CIM to balanced budgets by 2028
HOW WE ACHIEVE THIS
• Growth in fundraising including Annual Fund and endowed scholarships
• Growth in net tuition including Conservatory, Academy, and Summer Institute
• Employment agreements that balance respect for faculty and staff with CIM’s financial framework
In Pursuit of the Moonshot: A Tuition-Free CIM
Research suggests that soon, no student pursuing a highly specialized education will pay for that degree. As more peer music schools raise the funds to become tuition-free or adopt a no-student loans policy, if CIM does not make a similarly bold commitment, we will no longer be able to compete for the world’s most talented, most prepared classical music students.
What’s inescapable is this: while CIM’s history is legendary, there is no future pathway for a tuition-centric, elite-level conservatory.
Bridging the CIM Unfunded Scholarship Gap
Over the past decade, how has CIM made progress in addressing this reality?
A decade ago, only 19% of CIM scholarships were endowed. As the result of generous philanthropy and steadfast leadership, 37% of CIM scholarships are now endowed.
A Decade of Progress: CIM’s Scholarship Endowment
CIM’s tremendous fundraising progress has doubled the endowment funds available and pledged for scholarships. Conclusion: A decade of extraordinary philanthropy has materially improved the Institute’s ability to attract the world’s most talented classical music students through scholarships and financial aid. Even with an overall endowment of $71 million, and this remarkable progress, the Moonshot gap of $200-$300M remains very substantial. We can bridge the Moonshot goal with a relentless, generational commitment to transformational philanthropy.
