2017 Membership Drive

As we create a culture of kindness, generosity and courage through sharing the Shambhala teachings, and as we offer quality programs of personal transformation, it’s the monthly contributions of our members that make this possible.

The Philadelphia Shambhala Center’s fall Membership Drive has three goals:

  1. To support our many programs, events, community groups and open sitting
  2. To maintain our beautiful space
  3. To keep our finances healthy

Goal 1: Supporting Our Programs, Events, Community Groups and Open Sitting

Our calendar is bursting with great PROGRAMS AND EVENTS for practitioners of all levels, including:

  • Bagels and Dharma
  • Open Houses
  • How to Meditate
  • Profound Treasury of Dharma
  • Programs for stitching, singing, and social engagement
  • Open practice sessions
  • Community groups including Monday Night Sangha and Heart of Recovery

All of these wonderful programs are donation-based or offered at minimal cost. The generosity of our members is what supports all this activity!

Do you take part in these or similar programs? Do you want to help make them available to others? Help us do that by becoming a member or increasing your level of support.

Goal 2: Maintaining Our Beautiful Space

Our SPACE has been expanded and enhanced. Here’s how it looks at 2030 Sansom Street following the Building Mindful Space team’s beautiful renovation:

There’s a much more welcoming community area, a lovely kitchen, a third practice and classroom space, and we have a 10-year lease which was negotiated at favorable terms while bringing our rent more in line with the neighborhood standard.

We’ve built it, and now let’s use it fully and invite others in! When you become a member or increase your level of support, you help to keep our space maintained, heated, and open for everything we do and for all to enjoy.

Goal 3: Keeping Our Finances Healthy

DID YOU KNOW?:
The actual cost of rent, taxes, utilities, insurance and related costs is $250 a day!

Now that we’ve completed the work on our beautiful space – and expanded our programs to fill it and see it thrive – our FINANCIAL BASE needs to grow to keep our level of monthly contributions in line with the increased costs from our expansion and higher rent.

While our monthly operating expenses increased by 50% following our expansion, our monthly membership contributions have increased by 5%.

The membership drive can close this gap if we increase our membership contributions by $2,000 a month. For example, we can reach the goal if 45 new members contribute an average of $25 a month while our current members increase their contributions by an average of 20%.

In the past, membership contributions more than covered the Center’s overhead, so we could easily offer space to groups like Monday Night Sangha, along with our other free or donation-based programming. In 2016, with our increased space costs, we ran a deficit where $8,404 needed to be drawn from program income. As part of this membership drive, we want to ensure that we are able to continue to grow and expand our program offerings.

We are profoundly grateful to everyone who already contributes to the Center. We hope you know that, as a crucial part of the life of our community, your generosity now will also make a big difference in our ability to make our Center sustainable.

As it says in the “Sutra of the Recollection of the Three Jewels”: “Generosity is the ornament of the world…generosity is the virtue that produces peace.”

We hope you’ll join with us now by:

Thank you so much,

The Membership Drive Team: Lisa Kraus (Center Director), Mark Jacobson (Membership Coordinator), Brad Levinson (Web Master), Fred Strathmann (Chagdzö) and Kathleen Thayne (Head of Development)