January 30, 2009
Dear Members,
The dream of owning our own building is turning out to be less dream-like every day. Final results for the fall Annual Appeal exceeded the high range of our expectations, just going to demonstrate again that expectations are problematic…
Harvest of Peace fundraising and appeal calls to members ending earlier this month provided $75,647 in new revenue for fiscal year 2009 through this coming August. This sum is well over twice the budget projection set 5 months ago.
It was a team effort: fourteen members including current and former center directors and co-directors took on multiple calls to our expanding membership. Additional members donated auction items, pledged matching funds, coordinated fundraising at Harvest of Peace, and supported the cause in other critical ways. Last, and of course not least, a large majority of us generously participated by increasing monthly dues and/or making one-time donations, and by sharing questionnaire feedback as to how our sangha can better serve us all personally and collectively.
So…thank you and congratulations. Yes, those of us who made one-time donations, matching funds, and/or increased dues commitments need to be sure that we follow up with our pledges. And yes, we still have a great deal to accomplish in raising funds over the next 21 months to permit us to purchase our next home. But it’s important to celebrate, don’t you think?
Appreciatively,
Todj Mandel
Director, Development
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Steady Progress - Strong Support
Dear Sangha,
We are squarely on track to our goals in order to purchase a building in 2010. That may seem very far off now, but it will be the steps we consistently make over the next 18 months that determine both our probability of achieving our goal as well as the breadth of choices we will have with respect to characteristics of our new center.
In 2008, we succeeded in raising our monthly member dues revenues in our annual appeal considerably (details to come in a subsequent post shortly) and were grateful to accept year end charitable contributions to the tune of roughly $35,000, of which approximately $25,000 is earmarked for the building campaign. This is all great news and we should celebrate our progress as well as the universal support (in ways both financial and otherwise) that we, as a community, have shown for this project.
2009 will be an interesting year for our economy. As one who works in capital markets and finance, I would be disingenuous to portray that we are almost out of the woods. Most of the smart economists and market participants I speak with believe 2009 promises to be a very hard year for the US economy in general. With this in mind, we will have to be sure to remain disciplined in the face of uncertainty and adversity if we want to achieve our goal in 2010.
For me, it is helpful to remember our mission to create enlightened society, and go beyond fear and tap into the more powerful motivator - love. If we open our hearts, and appreciate our practice and the world around us, then taking the necessary steps to create a place and space where others can experience basic goodness and spend time in practice and study is a natural extension of our personal practice. The Sakyong spoke of this eloquently in his letter on generosity (linked above right).
So, as with so many things, it will take an unyielding confidence in our ability to reach our goal, coupled with small and disciplined steps that will move us slowly towards it. I have to think of the Tibetan nationals fleeing Chinese occupation, who took turns making the path for their caravans through the Himalayas by laying down in the freezing snow. In this way, each step we can make personally to enable our community to move along the path to our goal is a bridge for those who will come behind us.
So, thank you all for the steady progress and strong support shown in 2008. Let's continue in 2009, and take care not to lose heart. We are on the path to success, and just need to stay the course.
May the good windhorse be with you throughout.
David
We are squarely on track to our goals in order to purchase a building in 2010. That may seem very far off now, but it will be the steps we consistently make over the next 18 months that determine both our probability of achieving our goal as well as the breadth of choices we will have with respect to characteristics of our new center.
In 2008, we succeeded in raising our monthly member dues revenues in our annual appeal considerably (details to come in a subsequent post shortly) and were grateful to accept year end charitable contributions to the tune of roughly $35,000, of which approximately $25,000 is earmarked for the building campaign. This is all great news and we should celebrate our progress as well as the universal support (in ways both financial and otherwise) that we, as a community, have shown for this project.
2009 will be an interesting year for our economy. As one who works in capital markets and finance, I would be disingenuous to portray that we are almost out of the woods. Most of the smart economists and market participants I speak with believe 2009 promises to be a very hard year for the US economy in general. With this in mind, we will have to be sure to remain disciplined in the face of uncertainty and adversity if we want to achieve our goal in 2010.
For me, it is helpful to remember our mission to create enlightened society, and go beyond fear and tap into the more powerful motivator - love. If we open our hearts, and appreciate our practice and the world around us, then taking the necessary steps to create a place and space where others can experience basic goodness and spend time in practice and study is a natural extension of our personal practice. The Sakyong spoke of this eloquently in his letter on generosity (linked above right).
So, as with so many things, it will take an unyielding confidence in our ability to reach our goal, coupled with small and disciplined steps that will move us slowly towards it. I have to think of the Tibetan nationals fleeing Chinese occupation, who took turns making the path for their caravans through the Himalayas by laying down in the freezing snow. In this way, each step we can make personally to enable our community to move along the path to our goal is a bridge for those who will come behind us.
So, thank you all for the steady progress and strong support shown in 2008. Let's continue in 2009, and take care not to lose heart. We are on the path to success, and just need to stay the course.
May the good windhorse be with you throughout.
David
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