*  2008 numbers will be made public as soon as our accounting team closes the annual books.

As we looked into financial reporting, we realized there are almost as many ways to present the information as there are organizations. We have decided that giving you the traditional numbers and percentages, in addition to further narrative, is most in keeping with who we are and how we do things.

Legally we are two separate 501(C)(3)s, that is to say, two non-profit organizations, because the work we do falls into two different legal categories. The Zen Monastery Peace Center is a religious non-profit, while Living Compassion is not religiously affiliated. Thus, above you see the income and expense of the two organizations represented individually. We are often asked about the distinction between the two. The simplest answer is that the Zen Center offers Zen Awareness Practice. Living Compassion is a service organization (ex., Peacestorming Projects and the work in Africa). The two are very related, which is why we rarely talk about them separately except legally.

We are proud of how carefully we steward your donations. You will see that the great majority of funds are spent on program costs. Relative to many other non-profits, we spend very little on personnel. We pay our IT person (and although he is a most generous soul and would never tell you this, he is probably the most skilled, most underpaid IT person in the Bay Area), our graphic designer (the incredible talent behind all our beautiful emails/publications), our accountant (the only way we know how to get you these numbers!), and Cheri (even Zen teachers need to eat). Everyone else is a volunteer. Among the services donated to us: editing, organizational coaching, writing, event management, videography, blog creation, gift card production, grocery shopping, radio show production and talent, yoga instruction, labor on projects at the Monastery, mailings, Daily Peace Quotes management, facilitation, all day-to-day Monastery maintenance done by monks—this in addition to the countless items donated to us such as vehicles, clothing, appliances, household supplies…the list is endless.

Even the folks who are paid are doing this work because they love it, and in light of the very small salaries they receive, they are donating a good deal of their time.

A second reason for our low administrative costs is that everything we do is in pursuit of offering Practice and service. In fact, there is a way in which we would represent our pie chart as 100% program. What, in a given day, is something that is NOT about Practice, that is not of service? Of course, all of it is. Our graphic designer sits down to create an email to relay to you the exciting things that are happening in the organization. How she goes about doing that is Practice, and that comes through in the finished product. And yet, there are legal definitions, and we wish to use a common financial language that everyone can relate to. So, when we put work into something that is solely or mainly for the purpose of raising funds, that is counted as a fundraising cost. When we do the work of upkeep on our computers, that is designated administrative, and so on. But please know this: there is nothing extra happening here. No one is getting rich; no one is driving fancy cars or socking away vast sums for retirement (a big trusting-life moment for all of us!); no one goes on lavish business trips (unless you count 18 hours into Johannesburg as luxury—which the monks do, but we can hardly call them normal); there are not expensive meals purchased for our board meetings; we drive our cars until they can drive no more. The only places we do not cut costs are times when to do so would be to compromise our values. We are willing to pay a little more to purchase the responsibly produced product, or to be sure the person we are compensating is receiving a fair wage. Thankfully, in many areas, expressing our values is in alignment with saving money. The funds we save on utilities due to our solar power is an excellent example.

The same spirit with which donations are given, one of open generosity and care, is the spirit in which they are spent. We are grateful to have you with us in this exciting venture. Let us go forward and (to borrow a phrase from Gandhi) continue to be the change we want to see in the world.

Why did we start the "Keep the Doors Open" Drive?

Count me in!