Institute for Zen Leadership Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
454956464
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2016
Location
Madison, WI, USA
Phone
6085712445
Rating
65
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Buddhism
Affiliation
Buddhism

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$158,745
Expenses
$165,949
Assets
$70,689
Liabilities
$2,799

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

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Virginia Whitelaw (President and Treasurer)
  • Kristi Crymes (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Virginia Whitelaw (President and Treasurer): $47,999 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To combine Zen meditation and leadership training in order to develop wiser, more resilient leaders who can create healing and thriving in their relationships, organizations, and society. To foster Zen training and develop further instructors of Zen Leadership.

What it reported doing in 2025

In 2025, the Institute delivered 5 multi-day leadership programs serving 61 people including the ZL Leadership curriculum and a masterclass. We offered 31 full or partial scholarships to these programs, having a total value of $9820.49. The programs were delivered online. All programs were open enrollment. Additionally, IZL faculty presented at 9 other programs for the IZL alumni with an estimate of 108 attendees. We partnered with the California Institute of Integral Studies in delivering a program on Resonance and Zen Leadership. We also developed an online Learning Management System to better support our programs and alumni. We formed a Teaching Committee of 21 IZL instructors to work with them more closely on how they can be points of growth for the Institute. The Institute's President continued to raise visibility for IZL's programs as a regular contributor to Forbes.com with a reach of tens of thousands and as guest faculty or speaker in non-IZL events.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 92% 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. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 68
  • Transparency & Controls: 75
  • Accountability: 71
  • Sustainability: 23
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 74.7%; rating input score 75
  • Program expense ratio: 71.2%; rating input score 71
  • Fundraising efficiency: $5.64 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 24; 24th 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: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 85.7%; rating input score 86; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -4.5%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.43; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 28.9%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -2.3% per year; rating input score 0; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -7.2% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -13.1% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 74.7% of revenue deployed · 71.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 7 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $118K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $48K · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and grants
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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 — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 24/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 26/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 22/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 29/100.