Dharma Refuge
Capacity-​Building Capital Campaign

(You will be given the option of choosing your preferred method of payment;
​credit card, bank draft, check, or cash.)

​Dharma Refuge is in the midst of its first-ever Capital Campaign.

Our goal is to shift from being an all-volunteer organization to hiring a half-time Meditation Center Administrator early in 2020.  Beginning in 2021 we also hope to begin paying a salary to our teacher, Sue Kochan, who has served on a voluntary basis since 2005.

Following 8 months of research by our Board of Directors, including examination of operations and finances of meditation centers in New York and elsewhere, we determined the following:
  • We are a fully developed Dharma Center, no longer an informal sitting group.
  • We are in solid financial shape. Our core income in 2019 matched our core expenses, and we have 9 to 12 months of  reserve in the bank to cover operations, the amount recommended for healthy nonprofits.
  • Our programming and membership growth have exceeded our ability to rely on an all-volunteer infrastructure. We need to either significantly cut back on our programs and services to better match our volunteer resources, or begin supplementing and supporting our volunteers with paid administrative staff.
  • Our dues (donation) structure and special program fees have been significantly lower than other comparable groups. Relying on dana (voluntary giving) to support Sue and guest teachers has not been producing adequate income for them.
  • To create a sustainable future at current programming levels we need to begin paying our teacher.​
Picture
Photo courtesy of sangha member Deb Piece
Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.
—Dalai Lama


If we have no peace, it's because we've forgotten we belong to each other.
—Mother Teresa
The Great News!
 
Because 100% of our Board of Directors have made a pledge to the Capital Campaign, along with other households we contacted during the quiet phase of the campaign, we began the public part of our campaign on January 8 with pledges totaling $13,770. Those pledges range between $50 and $2,000.  

We are more than half-way to our ultimate goal of $25,000!!  Now we are reaching out to the entire sangha and beyond, inviting you to make a pledge and support our vision.

As a result...
We are conducting a one-time Capacity-Building Capital Campaign with a goal of $20-25,000 to raise one year of salary and related expenses for a half-time Community Administrator.  This will enable us to attract strong candidates and guarantee them at least one year of work.

We have instituted changes in dues and program fees that should bring us increasing income over the next several years, and by 2021 hopefully will prove adequate to support our administrator and begin providing a salary for Sue.
​

Please help us make 2020 a memorable year for Dharma Refuge - join our effort to ensure that we will be around long into the future, living our vision of helping to create “a world of Bodhisattvas.”  ​

(You will be given the option of choosing your preferred method of payment;
​credit card, bank draft, check, or cash.)