Blue Cliff Zen Center
Overview
Mission
To reduce the amount of stress experienced in the community by offering zen meditation and mindfulness activities, while at the same time fostering well-being, kindness, and insight. We are committed to helping develop a more wakened community and world. Please consider donating to help us continue offering these important programs.
What it reported doing in 2024
We offer six zen meditation sessions each week, as well as zen yoga retreats, mindfulness courses, and teacher trainings. We also do intensive zen retreats, community service projects, and zen ceremonies. Our lineage is the blue cliff zen center branch of the rinzai zen tradition of zen master shinzan miyamae and the soto zen traditions of julian daizan skinner. 2024 activities include: weekly morning (monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday) and sunday afternoon zen meditation community gatherings. New years fire ceremony - february 3 day breakthrough to zen retreats - january, may, and september online breakthrough to zen retreat - march seasonal zen yoga retreats: winter nourishing your roots retreat - january spring melting the ice retreat - april fall letting go into the universe retreat - not this year the buddha's birthday ceremony - april meditation/mindfulness 6-week courses for health/well-being, grounding/insight, kindness/compassion - january through march, april through may, and october through november. Seasonal zen meditation days - may and october japan zen adventure trip (zen retreat and sightseeing in japan) - june zen precepts ceremony - july summer zen retreat (sesshin): july yard sale fundraiser - august meditation and mindfulness teacher training - august rohatsu all-night zen retreat - december
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 78% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 813626615
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2017–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2016
- Location
- Eugene, OR, USA
- Phone
- 5415435049
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Buddhism
- Affiliation
- Buddhism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $100,224
- Expenses
- $103,486
- Assets
- $40,987
- Liabilities
- $4,953
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 87
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 25
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 87.8%; rating input score 88
- Program expense ratio: 85%; rating input score 85
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -3.3%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.4; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.12; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 36.7%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8.7% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.6% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 13.8% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 87.8% of revenue deployed · 85% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $88K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 8 annual filings from 2017 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 25/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 32/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 23/100.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
People named in this filing
- MATTHEW SHINKAI KANE (EXECUTIVE DI)
- RENEE LEGRIS (BOARD MEMBER)
- CAROLYN GSELL (SECRETARY)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024.