Yellow Springs Dharma Center
Overview
Mission
The Yellow Springs Dharma Center supports the development of wisdom and compassion grounded in the teachings and practices of the Buddha Dharma, and provides opportunities for meditation instruction, regular group practice, book discussions, retreats, work practice, gardening, and Dharma talks from Buddhist traditions.
What it reported doing in 2025
Sponsorship of residential retreats for meditation and study, meditation and practices for three major Buddhist traditions, private retreat services
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 73% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The nonprofit carried out 91% of its reported program work directly.
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 311382773
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2021–2025
- Website reviewed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2020, Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-T 2020
- Headquarters
- Yellow Springs, OH, USA
- Rating
- 71
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Buddhism
- Affiliation
- Buddhism
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The website gives limited detail about leaders and governance practices and the website provides limited financial reporting.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 96
- Transparency & Controls: 66
- Accountability: 25
- Sustainability: 56
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 96.7%; rating input score 97
- Program expense ratio: 94.9%; rating input score 95
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Public monitoring controls: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Public policy transparency: 0 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Public financial transparency: 0 of 5 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Impact reporting controls: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
- Public relationship transparency: No; rating input score 0
Accountability
- Public governance controls: 1 of 4 controls in place; rating input score 25
- Zakat policy transparency: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 2.6%; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Operating reserve ratio: 2.65; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 22.6% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 8.2% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 3.3% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 96.7% of revenue deployed · 94.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $107K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 5 annual filings from 2021 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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.