Mustang Bon Foundation

What it reported doing in 2025

The mustang culture and education centre(mcec), based in jomsom, mustang nepal, is a registered social organization aimed at supporting the education of local children, bettering living conditions of the village population, and preserving its unique culture and traditions.mcec has identified as an ongoing imperative the need to restore the cultural and spiritual traditions for the indigenous tibetan population living in this area of nepal. The bon, the indigenous and oldest religion of tibet, has strong roots in mustang. The religious practices of bon, centered around local monasteries, have traditionally been the heart of culture and religious life for the indigenous population in this region. However, currently no bon po monastery exists in the area to support these practices for the local population. Mcec's objective is to construct, on land donated by the community, an indigenous spiritual and cultural campus in jomsom, the administrative center of mustang.mcec's vision for the campus includes:*a main bon temple and living space for 100 monks;*a youth hostel for 100 children-all learing their indigenous tibetan language and spiritual practices; and*a 50-room guest house for advanced western students. The monastery will serve as a hub for revitalizing local indigenous religious practices. Lamas and monks will be available to the local population to offer the range of prayers and rituals that once were a vital part of every aspect of local life in mustang. These practices include religious practices for birth, death, protection, disease-prevention, farming, and protecting the harvest. The monastery will be a place for the despository and preservation of old manuscripts, the reprints of widely used spiritual texts, and for traditional arts and paintings. It also will be a place to pass on practices for making and maintaining traditional stupas. Building a monastery will ensure a population of lamas and monks to serve the local population for generations to come.the integration of the youth hostel into the campus will mean relocating the children from the existing rented facility in the town. The existing facility is already at maximum capacity with the 38 students it currently houses. The new facility will allow mcec to expand, through time, to 100 students. It also will be a significant improvement in living conditions for the children and will locate them nearer to the nepalese school that they attend. Most importantly, intrgrating them into the campus will place them nearer the monks, who will play an important role in educating these students in their cultural and spiritual traditions, including their tibetan language. For more on the children, see our descriptions of the mcec children's home below.the plan for the spiritual campus also includes a guesthouse to accommodate visting students from the west. The hope is that the guesthouse will create a demand for advanced teachings from the culture of the cave and hermitage yogis in a way that will revitalize the cave and hermitage yogi culture. The ability to receive these advanced teachings and pratices in this setting will be a unique opportunity for qualified western stuudents from the pogwf network.supporting the mcec indigenous tibetan spiritual and culutral campus project is a top priority for pogwf. The great hope of this project is that it will help to restore and revitalize these precious teachings in their indigenous setting. Without some intervention, the risk is great that these practices will die out in the region in this generation. We see our support of this project as paramount to fulfilling our mission to support the indigenous communities and lineage teachers in preserving their culture and traditions. Helping to bring this campus to fruition will be an expression of gratitude to these indigenous cultures for sharing their most precious teachings and practices with our spiritual community in the west.pogwf has identified numerous opportunities to help supp

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 76.3%; rating input score 76
• Program expense ratio: 97.1%; rating input score 97
• Fundraising efficiency: $118.25 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited
• Public monitoring controls: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
• 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: 0 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 0
• Public relationship transparency: No; rating input score 0

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
• Public governance controls: 4 of 4 controls in place; rating input score 100
• Zakat policy transparency: Limited

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 21.3%; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
• Operating reserve ratio: 0.74; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 10.8% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 3.5% per year; rating input score 100; 27th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings