Dharmadatta

Legal name: Dharmadatta Community

Overview

Mission

To support the practice and dissemination of Buddhist teachings, meditation, and mindful living through community programs, retreats, and educational initiatives.

What it reported doing in 2025

Dharmadattas largest program service area of our community in 2025 aims to provide religious services to our lay congregation primarily through online programming that is offered entirely free of charge. All our religious services are conducted entirely in Spanish with liturgical services group prayer meditation and religious instruction. We provide theological training religious instruction and prayer services via Instituto Budadharma institutobudadharma.org and our Online Meditation Hall at budismoenlinea.ning.com Salas de meditacion Dharmadatta. Instituto Budadharma served 500-700 students every trimester in 2025 who took facilitated not self-paced online courses ranging from six weeks to six months long. During 2025 1,381 congregants took our online courses. To support this we trained 13 new facilitators in 2025 bringing our team to 49 facilitators to allow us to grow in 2026. Instituto Budadharma also offers a rigorous seven-year religious study program with 500 members currently enrolled and nearly 100 graduates. In 2025 we graduated our third cohort to complete the full seven-year certification. Our online meditation halls serve a congregation of over 35,000 members. In 2025 we held 232 group prayer and or meditation sessions. Throughout the year we offered live guided 21-day meditation courses with 500 members meeting the commitment to join daily. Dharmadatta teachers travelled in 2025 to lead retreats workshops and provide pastoral care to congregants during a two-month teaching tour. Our Ecosangha Dharmadatta project continues to bring together 50 people monthly to deepen our ecological commitment as a spiritual practice.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 94% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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
853167871
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2025
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2023
Location
Peekskill, NY, USA
Phone
8458264184
Rating
65
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Buddhism
Affiliation
Buddhism

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$416,475
Expenses
$171,467
Assets
$788,833
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 45
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 53
  • Sustainability: 77
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 35.1%; rating input score 35
  • Program expense ratio: 75.7%; rating input score 76
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

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

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 75%; rating input score 75; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 2 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 22
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 58.8%; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.6; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 31.8%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 26.3% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 20.4% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 31% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 4 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
  • Where the money goes: 35.1% of revenue deployed · 75.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 4 board members independent · 2 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $130K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $51K · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 43 of 43 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 3 annual filings from 2022 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 35/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 6 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 10/100.

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • Dr Diana Finnegan (President): $50,698 total reported compensation
  • Susan Crowley (Treasurer): $3,850 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025.