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 nonprofit carried out 100% of its reported program work directly.

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
813626615
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2017–2024
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2016
Headquarters
Eugene, OR, 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. Expenses are high relative to revenue and available reserves provide a limited financial cushion.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 87
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Accountability: NotEnoughData
  • 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
  • Public monitoring controls: Limited
  • Public policy transparency: Limited
  • Public financial transparency: Limited
  • Impact reporting controls: Limited
  • Public relationship transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Public governance controls: Limited
  • Zakat policy transparency: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -3.3%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Operating reserve 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; 50th 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.