Drikung Dharma Surya Center
Legal name: Drikung Dharma Surya Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 454106452
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2014
- Location
- Fairfax, VA, USA
- Phone
- 703-273-5189
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Buddhism
- Affiliation
- Buddhism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $79,365
- Expenses
- $79,779
- Assets
- $970,164
- Liabilities
- $205,312
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- QUANG BUI (PRESIDENT)
- VU NGUYEN (VICE PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- QUANG BUI (PRESIDENT)
- VU NGUYEN (VICE PRESIDENT)
- PHUONG BUI (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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The goal of the Center [DDSC] is to generate loving kindness and peace – peace in the individual, peace within families and communities, peace with other faiths, peace among all beings. It becomes a space where beings can always learn about karma. The temple also provides a special outdoor Contemplation Garden in the right corner of the temple, beautified with the 44″ x 84″ framed structure displaying the 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas as one of the foremost LoJong (mind-training) texts written by Gyalsé Tokmé Zangpo and the 6 feet tall Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha statue who took a great vow to guide all living beings from the hell and denied to achieve Buddhahood until all hells are empty. Visitors often stop by the Contemplation Garden surrounded by all season perennial companion plants that complement each other in the landscape, and read the 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas and Bodhisattva...
What it reported doing in 2024
11th annual USA drikung kagyu monlam - prayer festival for world peace, from 01/06/2024 to 06/02/2024 (during special saga dawa) with in-person and online zoom participation from monastics of rinpoches, khenpos, khenmos, drupons, lamas and anis with special online teachings bestowed by his eminence garchen rinpoche: commemorate the birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana of buddha shakyamuni as well as the parinirvana of lord jigten sumgon; practice and rejoice in the blessings of the lineage and enlightened beings, and reflect and inspire actions that are conducive for all beings to live in harmony; pray for the long lives and continued activities of his holiness the dalai lama and all of the holy gurus of all traditions and lineages; pray for world peace and welfare - stream of blessings, practice of the buddha shakyamuni; praise of the twelve deeds of the buddha; maitreyas aspiration; lama chopa of jigten sumgon lamp; feast offering; thirty-seven point maala offering; king of aspirations: the prayer for noble excellent conduct, dedication from the bodhisattvas way of life, solkha practice -torma offering to the dharma protectors.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% 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.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 71
- Transparency & Controls: 93
- Accountability: 88
- Sustainability: 54
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 80.4%; rating input score 80
- Program expense ratio: 80%; rating input score 80
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- 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: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -0.5%; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 12.16; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.21; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -4.3% per year; rating input score 0; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -6.6% per year; rating input score 0; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.1% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 80.4% of revenue deployed · 80% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $64K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 23 of 24 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2015 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule D other liabilities reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 54/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 15/100.