2011 Soul of Money Training

Through the Soul of Money Institute, the Foundation constructed for the benefit of each of its grantees, a $200,000+ fundraising and good business practice training program presented through a series of four webinars, two workshops and a Foundation conference all scheduled between June, 2010 and September, 2011. In these difficult economic times, raising money and effectively implementing the program for which the funds have been raised is most challenging. As the Foundation’s economic resources have become more limited as a consequence of the economic downturn, the Foundation took some of its precious grant dollars to create this program, run by the experts at the Soul of Money, to enable the Foundation’s grantees to become more self-sufficient through effective fundraising and use of sound business practices.

As part of this program, our grantees were given the tools and opportunity to improve their fundraising strategies and expand fundraising results so that each could move toward long-term financial viability and organizational well-being. Less dependency on our Foundation’s continuing support of existing grantees will allow the Foundation to increase the circle of its grant partners to embrace new qualified organizations which may be in need of funds to advance American Buddhism in line with the Foundation’s vision and mission statement.

As part of this grant program, four of the Foundation’s grantees (Zen Hospice Project, Big Mind, Zen Peacemakers and Peace on the Street) were selected for intensive one-on-one training and consultation. For all of those that participated, the goal was to enable each organization to construct and implement, before our September, 2011 conference, a fundraising campaign suitable and unique to its needs and mission, and to do so in the context of sound organizational business practices, never losing sight of the spiritual foundations upon which each organization is based.

The difference in training between the four organizations which received the intensive training, and the rest of the group, was that the four ended up with a custom-designed fundraising plan, and the balance of the group created their own plans with the tools provided as part of the course. Grant awards amounting to $66,000 were distributed to those groups with the best self-developed plan. All groups shared their experiences and learning’s at the Foundation’s 2011 Fall Conference in Park City, Utah, where The Soul of Money Institute and their team of experts, under the direction of Lynne Twist, conducted a weekend workshop. Also offered were private consultations for any grantee desiring a session, and a summary of what we and our grant partners had achieved together.