TRANSPARENCY
Organizational transparency: The directors and staff of the corporation are listed online. The Dalai Lama Foundation is a California [US] corporation. The bylaws of the Foundation [PDF] may also be read online.
To that end we present the following charts showing income and expenditures for recent years. The charts generally appear a year “late” because we wait for the completion of a financial audit before we prepare them.
Financial transparency: We will be reporting to you and our donors annually on how efficient we are with respect to using donations to further the purposes of the Foundation. During 2009 and 2010 donations to the Foundation were less than projected; however for the past several years donated assets were sold to cover operating and program costs. We recognize that your donations are precious and it is important to us that we use them as effectively and efficiently as we can.
Notes:
Tangible property: When property is donated to the Foundation, it is not recognized as income until it is converted to cash, at which point we can determine its value.
Program-specific donations are designated for specific programs by their donors. Almost all of this income becomes “Direct project expense” although not necessarily in the same calendar year.
Direct project expense: This includes expense for programs we run internally as well as programs we sponsor that are administered by other individuals or organizations.
Administration: All staff, office and other basic expenses that cannot be directly tied to specific projects are grouped under Administration. Although objectively we are frugal about expenses, the Foundation is small and therefore the percentage of our expenses devoted to administrative activities is high now and should decrease as we grow.
Volunteer time and pro-bono or in-kind services are not recognized in these reports even though they enable a large portion of the Foundation’s activities.
IRS Form 990— Nonprofit organizations in the US file a form 990 with the Internal Revenue Service on an annual basis. This form gives much more information about the organization. They are filed late in the following year. You can obtain these forms from the Foundation Center or GuideStar.
| Download our forms 990 (also available from the Foundation Center) | |||||
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