Finding the sacred balance

The short story is that we need to raise $12,000 in donations before the end of the year in order to break even. There are more details below, but if you’ve benefitted from the work we do, or appreciate our efforts to make meditation teachings more widely available, please respond by contributing generously so that we can continue to provide our activities for everyone to enjoy. We really can’t afford to sustain a loss this year.

It would be wonderful if you could donate $1000, or $100, or even just $10 — whatever you can afford.

If you want to use a credit card, you can click here, enter the amount you want to donate, and then click on “add to cart.”
If you have a Paypal account, you can click here and enter your chosen donation.
And lastly, checks can be mailed to: Wildmind, 55 Main St. Suite 315, Newmarket NH 03857, USA.

Here’s some background!

We’ve had a challenging couple of years. In 2013 we learned that our tax accountant had not filed our taxes for the previous two years. This created a huge problem with the Internal Revenue Service, and we had to spend around $8,000 sorting things out with them. This, as it happens, was money well spent, because we’d otherwise have faced penalties of $25,000, which we managed to get waived.

We took on Mark Tillotson in order to free me up to teach more, with the assumption that this arrangement would start to pay for itself before the end of the year. We’re making progress in that direction, but we haven’t yet got there. Keeping Mark employed as part of the team is my major priority, since it allows me to do what I’m best at — writing and teaching — rather than be distracted by routine office work.

Thanks to Mark’s presence we were able to launch our Year of Going Deeper, which involved me teaching full-time. On a personal level this was deeply satisfying, but unfortunately on a financial level this didn’t work out. We made a strategic error in saying “these events are free, but donations are appreciated.” Unfortunately this seems to have sent out a signal we didn’t intend, and only around 3% of participants donated.

The financial pressure we’ve experienced has been quite extreme. It saps our energy to be juggling bills and experiencing anxiety about whether we can continue.

Celebrating Our Successes!

But in many ways things have been going well! Here are a few highlights:

There were 1,500,000 visits to our website in the past 12 months. And our traffic is steadily growing! That’s a lot of meditation teaching!
We taught meditation to people in every country in the world (except for Western Sahara, for some reason).
We ran seven online events as part of our Year of Going Deeper, and these events averaged over 1,200 participants each. All these events were by donation.
The materials I wrote for these events — on cultivating jhana, on the six element practice, and on lovingkindness — are in the process of being edited into book form.
The very talented Amy Kosh joined our team part-time during the summer, and has been making a wonderful contribution in running our online store, which helps subsidize our teaching work.
Our base of monthly financial supporters has been growing steadily.

Things are Looking Up!

We think that financial problems this year are just teething problems.

Our tax situation is now sorted out, and our accounting bills will be much lower in 2015.

We’ve changed how we ask for donations, and the percentage of participants who are making a donation has increased tenfold. (The total number is down, but we’re hopeful that on balance we’ll do better).

The material that I wrote for our meditation challenges in 2014 will start going on sale in 2015, which will bring in more income. We’ll also be able to cut some of our costs next year.

In short, we believe we’re on the way to being financially stable. We’re looking forward, one day, and perhaps soon, to having an abundance of resources to draw on, rather than worrying about how to continue. We hope that soon we won’t be in the position of having to ask for help like this!

The Sacred Balance

We’re not just trying to balance our books, but are looking for a sense of balance in everything we do. We believe passionately in the power meditation has to transform lives for the better. We’re doing everything we can, with the resources at our disposal, to help others. We’re seeking a balance where what we give out to the world in energy is met with enough support so that we can flourish and help the world to flourish. We have big plans! We’re not at that point of balance yet, but we believe it’s attainable. Please support us and help us get there!

Love,

Bodhipaksa

PS. Again, three ways you can make a donation are:

Donate by credit card
Donate via Paypal
Or mail a check to Wildmind, 55 Main St. Suite 315, Newmarket NH 03857, USA.

Related posts:
An urgent appeal – please give today!
Progress, pitfalls, and more progress!
Join us for our second Year of Going Deeper

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