Donations
The School of Piano Technology for the Blind is a non-profit corporation as specified in Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code. It is also registered under the Washington State Charitable Contributions Act, TIN 91-079-1533. IRS regulations regarding charitable contributions require the School of Piano Technology for the Blind to note that it did not provide any goods or services in consideration for contributions.
Background Information
In 1965, after his second heart attack, Emil Fries decided to assign the assets of his private school to a non-profit corporation to be governed by a Board of Trustees. The non-profit corporation was named the Emil Fries Piano Hospital and Training Center. In 2005, the Board of Trustees adopted the name, School of Piano Technology for the Blind to more accurately reflect the school’s mission and purpose to prospective students and potential donors. In order to support its mission the School of Piano Technology for the Blind accepts donations of money, stock and other marketable assets. It also accepts donations of used pianos that are in reasonably good condition. It is especially important that the finish of the piano needs little or no work since the staff and students of the school do not attempt to refinish the case of pianos. Piano donations should also include the cost of moving the piano to the school. The school can suggest a piano moving company.
Why the School needs Donations
Donations requested from visitors to our website will be used for scholarships to support the training of blind and visually impaired students. Blind and visually impaired students are supported, in large part, by the Department of Services for the Blind (DSB) in their home states. This support covers the cost of tuition, tools, books and lab fees. Some states are able to support students at 100% of the costs; other states limit their support to 80% or less depending on state budgets. In all cases, the amount paid by the DSB is not enough to cover the actual cost of training blind and visually impaired students. The nature of the training requires high levels of individualized instruction to properly orient the blind or visually impaired student to new tasks and to the use of new tools. For some blind people, spatial reasoning and orientation can be very challenging and only guided repetition can create the necessary understandings of the inter-relationships between parts, tools and person. It is amazing how well visually impaired and blind people gain and retain new piano tuning and repair skills, especially since they rely entirely on their hearing and sense of touch to make delicate, precise adjustments. It may take longer to teach the skills to blind and visually impaired students, but the quality of their learning experience equals that of the sighted student.
How are Donations Used?
Donations will be used to provide scholarships to close the gap between the actual cost of individualized instruction and the amount of tuition we are able to charge. Each student generates a revenue gap that generous donors help to close. Thanks for helping us create brighter futures for blind and visually impaired people. Please contact Len Leger for more information on supporting the school.
phone: (360) 693-1511
Please use our contact form to email us.