Please remember NWDA in the Giving Season
Written by: Timothy (Amara) O’Brien
– An Appeal from Timothy (Amara) O’Brien
As you are reading this, are you aware of the conditions that led to the creation of what you’re reading? This awareness, of course, is fundamental to the practice of the dharma; it is the basic teaching of the Buddha that all things arise and fall dependent on conditions.
One of the conditions for the creation of this newsletter and the other activities of Northwest Dharma Association is having the financial resources necessary. NWDA provides a unique service to the Northwest Buddhist community. With our website, online news magazine, and sponsored events, we provide a forum that knits the whole of the Buddhist community together. It’s easy to take this for granted.
We are coming to the close of the year and we’re trying to balance the budget, and we need your help. If you are already a regular donor, thank you! If not, won’t you consider becoming a regular monthly sponsor of NWDA’s activities? It’s easy. Just click on this link to our donation pledge. There you can set up an automatic monthly payment of any amount. Even $5/month helps us. Of course, if you can afford more or can make a one-time donation, we are grateful for every gift.
We have worked hard over the last few years to make NWDA as economical as possible. As you can read from board President Koro Miles’s article, we are even closing the Seattle office and saving administrative dollars. Almost all of the funds we receive go directly to providing services in fulfillment of our mission.
So, please, won’t you help us support Buddhist teachings, practice, and community in the Pacific Northwest?
Sometimes I think that for a lot of convert Western Buddhists, there is a disconnect between receiving the gifts of the long tradition that has upheld the teachings of the Buddha, including all the financial investments followers have made over the centuries, and what we are willing to give back.
Many of us come out of religious institutions that browbeat their members for contributions, and then squander those gifts in ostentatious displays of wealth. Add to this a basic anti-institutional trend in Western Buddhist practice, and you end up with a real aversion to requests for money…an understandable reaction.
On the other hand, without financial support, the dharma will not grow and flower.
There are so many demands on our philanthropic dollar. We all have causes and concerns in which we place value. So, we can’t give much to everything.
But we can give a little to a lot of different causes; for example, if you set aside $60 per month in gifts, you can benefit 12 organizations at $5/month.
Anyone in the non-profit world will tell you that having 100 people giving $5 in a month is worth much more than one person giving $500 once.
If you click on this link, you can go right to our online donations page. Please consider making a monthly donation, even in as small an amount as $5/month. Of course, if you can afford more, it will be greatly appreciated. And of course, if you cannot be a regular contributor, a one-time donation will help.