May 15, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
Leaders of the Trenton Education Dance Institute, more commonly called TEDI, began to see the writing on the wall about three years ago.
The Trenton, N.J., public-school system, which accounted for about one-third of the charity’s annual revenue, “was starting to get hammered with all kinds of cuts,” says Richard Bilotti, president of the 22-year-old dance institute. And continuing support from The Times of Trenton, the group’s biggest corporate sponsor, was uncertain, as Mr. Bilotti was getting ready to retire as the newspaper’s publisher.
Instead of scrambling to find replacement dollars among donors in Trenton, an area particularly hard hit by the tough economy, Mr. Bilotti and TEDI’s other volunteer leaders decided it was best to close the institute—but not before finding a proper home for its programs, including an in-school dance curriculum for youngsters.
They approached the Children’s Home Society of New Jersey, a bigger and better-financed group that also serves school kids, and persuaded a foundation to pay for consultants to devise a plan for TEDI to become a subsidiary of the larger group. After a yearlong trial arrangement, the transaction is expected to be completed next month.
The children’s group doesn’t have the money to run TEDI’s programs in full, but Mr. Bilotti is still pleased with the plan.
“The reality is, the alternative was the program disappearing altogether,” he says. “We found a way to preserve the heart of TEDI.”
