Tricycle Foundation

Overview

Mission

Tricycle makes Buddhist teachings and practices available to the general public through its quarterly magazine (Tricycle: The Buddhist Review), website (tricycle.org), Daily Dharma app, and online courses.

What it reported doing in 2024

Tricycle continues to advance its mission to make buddhist teachings and practices broadly available. Despite industry-wide disruption from artificial intelligence and a significant decline in search traffic, tricycle achieved modest subscription growth while deepening engagement with its existing audience. Through an expanded offering of live virtual and in-person events, along with new digital programs centered on buddhist practices, tricycle focused on interactive content and community-building.

Operating model

Revenue model
Other-operating. 83% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The nonprofit carried out 100% of its reported program work directly.

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
133589889
IRS 990 coverage
2012–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Headquarters
New York, NY, USA
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Affiliation
Buddhism

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for setting executive pay and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 79
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 89
  • Sustainability: 52
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 81.3%; rating input score 81
  • Program expense ratio: 94.5%; rating input score 95
  • Fundraising efficiency: $5.27 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited
  • Public monitoring controls: Limited
  • Public policy transparency: Limited
  • Public financial transparency: Limited
  • Impact reporting controls: Limited
  • Public relationship transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 90%; rating input score 90; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 88
  • Public governance controls: Limited
  • Zakat policy transparency: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 14.8%; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Operating reserve ratio: 1.31; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.35; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 16.9%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.2% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.1% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 21.5% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 81.3% of revenue deployed · 94.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 10 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $3M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $287K · 12 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 13 annual filings from 2012 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.