Dawn Mountain
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 760507052
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2014
- Location
- Houston, TX, USA
- Phone
- 7136300354
- Rating
- 67
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose
- Affiliation
- Buddhism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $253,905
- Expenses
- $168,805
- Assets
- $650,734
- Liabilities
- $9,540
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Anne C Klein (President)
- Harvey B Aronson (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Anne C Klein (President)
- Harvey B Aronson (Vice President)
- Jason Cox (Treasurer)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Dawn Mountain modernizes Tibetan Buddhist foundational training on love, trust, connectedness, and joyful appreciation of life and teaches them to people of all ages. We seek to inspire all we engage with to develop these skills, particularly mindfulness and compassion.
What it reported doing in 2025
As the largest portal for authentic Tibetan thought, practice, and meditation in Houston, Dawn Mountain teaches students locally in person and globally online via weekend workshops, lectures, classes, and regular meetings archived on YouTube. Programs are attended by a broad spectrum of ethnic, socioeconomic, and religiously affiliated adults, teens, and children. Approximately 3,500 people were served in 2025. As our programs grow, they are archived online on YouTube. The annual viewership increased from 23,300 views in 2016 to 35,355 in 2025. The Research Institute supports translating, archiving, and preserving crucial parts of the Tibetan tradition in Western Languages with practice texts translated into chant-able English. We provide subsidies for people who are unable to pay for programs.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 65% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 45
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 73
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 42.4%; rating input score 42
- Program expense ratio: 58.6%; rating input score 59
- Fundraising efficiency: $4.55 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 19; 19th 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
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 33.5%; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.85; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -6.6% per year; rating input score 0; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.4% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9.6% per year; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 42.4% of revenue deployed · 58.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $99K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2015 to 2025
- 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 42/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 59/100.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 19/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 37/100.