transparency

Our Yearly Financial Statements

Dzokden is a religious non-profit organization. We are committed to transparency in our financial reporting. As a charity in the USA, all of our yearly financial statements are publicly available on the IRS.gov website. We encourage you to review them to learn more about how we use your program revenue and donations. We have also included our 990 Filings below for your convenience. We received our tax-exempt status in 2022 but started our application in 2018. 

Search the IRS USA tax Authority website here. Enter our EEIN 83-0930746. Choose San Francisco, California, for the location.

2022 Dzokden 990 Tax Filing 
2021 Dzokden 990 Tax Filing 

Dzokden makes as much effort as possible to run our programs with volunteers and receive discounts on all services that we can qualify for. We are actively working with our accountant to help transform our reporting so that we can in the future show you the breakdown of our expenses by program. This will allow the data to be clearer and more meaningful regarding which projects and programs the money went to.  We currently offer a lot of financial aid in the form of waiving fees to students who can not afford the program cost and waive the fees for monastic members as well. 

Understanding Money of the Triple Gem

All money that belongs to Dzokden is considered to be the money of the three jewels. With that comes huge responsibility in its direction and management.

In Tibetan Buddhism, we understand that any money related to Dharma has a lot heavier karma in how it is used. This is because it belongs to and was given for the use of the three jewels: the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. We have to reflect on this, be careful, and take notice. The Tibetans call this type of money Khor, and it is understood that it should not be spent easily, wasted, or used for non-dharma purposes.

Traditionally, the great Lamas and the great practitioners have always been very careful. There is a story that HH Jigme Phuntosk’s teacher’s monastery had a ladle that they kept at the nearby river to collect water for the monastery. The local people who went to the river to collect water never used this ladle. They always brought their own. If someone asked why they didn’t use that ladle, they would say we don’t use this ladle because it belongs to the Sangha. If they were making tea for the monks at the monastery only then would they use this ladle. If they were drinking water themselves, they would never touch it. So traditional practitioners have this incredibly strict view in understanding the Karma created by using resources owned by the three jewels.

Any money that belongs to the three jewels is seen as so holy, too holy; it is risky to hold in case you make a mistake and make negative karma with it. If you use this money well for the right purpose, then it is good. If you misuse it, you run a huge risk for yourself including massive amounts of negative karma more powerful than the negative karma of misusing a regular person’s money. We call it Nyambo. It’s not ordinary; it’s something extraordinary.

The Sutras, in general, teach how to use the Khor, the money of the triple gem, as well as how to use regular money given to you in your life.

Money in General
If you are enlightened and a Buddha, then there is nothing that you can not use. You can use the whole world’s wealth as if you are its owner. If you are not yet a Buddha but have already entered one of the paths of the Bodhisattva, you can’t use all regular money like your owner, but no matter how much money is offered to you, you can use it as its owner. You don’t create Karmic debt. Then, for practitioners who are trying but are not on the path, it’s like someone has lent it to them when they are given any money. It’s not like you ever actually owned it. You must dedicate and pray to those who offered it, and you should not forget them. If you are not on the path and use the money offered, you are accumulating a huge karmic debt.

Khor Money
So then, if we talk about Khor separately, the money that already belongs to the Sangha, you can use this money for Dharma’s benefit. If you use the money wisely to benefit the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, then there is no problem. But if you use it for individual self-indulgent benefit, then it is huge negative karma. If you eat the equivalent of one mouth’s worth of the Sangha’s money, then it’s like you are eating one cup of hot boiling metal liquid and creating the karmas to go to hell.