Buddhist Digital Resource Center
Legal name: Buddhist Digital Resource Center Inc
Overview
Mission
The Buddhist Digital Resource Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to seeking out, preserving, documenting, and disseminating Buddhist literature. BDRC digitizes endangered Buddhist manuscripts for long-term preservation and creates digital tools to support access and research. Preservation. Current programs focus on the preservation of Tibetan literary heritage, the preservation of manuscripts in Southeast Asia, and the development of technology to support digital archiving and scholarly research. BDRC's preservation and access programs enact the organization's central aims: to repatriate the heritage of Buddhist cultures, make Buddhist literature available on a mass scale, and promote research on and engagement with culturally significant Buddhist texts. | | Preservation | Access |.
What it reported doing in 2024
Bdrc is dedicated to educating the public about, conducting research into, and preserving and promoting buddhist traditions. The organization provides documentation and research findings to representatives of traditional buddhism, academic researchers, translators, and the general public. This is achieved, in part, by supporting the promotion of accurate translations and high-quality publications of buddhist literary heritage that are based on materials in its collection. Additionally, bdrc collaborates on documentation projects with other academics, researchers, and traditional buddhist scholars.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 76% for direct work, and 24% for grants.
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 043491680
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Website reviewed
- Aug 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Headquarters
- Boston, MA, USA
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Buddhism
- Affiliation
- Buddhism
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 81
- Transparency & Controls: 63
- Accountability: 96
- Sustainability: 48
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 85.8%; rating input score 86
- Program expense ratio: 86.2%; rating input score 86
- Fundraising efficiency: $12.61 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: 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: 1 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 14
- Public relationship transparency: No; rating input score 0
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- Public governance controls: 4 of 4 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Zakat policy transparency: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 1.5%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Operating reserve ratio: 1.76; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 5.3%; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.7% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.4% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.2% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 85.8% of revenue deployed · 86.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $114K · 17 people listed
- Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and grants
- Filing history: 13 annual filings from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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.