Lion's Roar
Legal name: Lions Roar Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 980549367
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Halifax, North America, Canada
- Phone
- Toll-free: +1-877-786-1950
- Rating
- 66
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Buddhism
- Affiliation
- Buddhism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,501,530
- Expenses
- $1,390,295
- Assets
- $531,595
- Liabilities
- $730,905
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Melvin McLeod (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Ben Moore (Secretary): $80,442 total reported compensation
- Melvin McLeod (President): $80,419 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Lion’s Roar is an independent non-profit foundation whose mission is to communicate Buddhist wisdom and practices in order to benefit people’s lives and our society, and to support the development of Buddhism in the modern world. Mission-driven and community-supported, the Lion’s Roar Foundation provides Buddhist teachings, news, and perspectives so that the understanding and practice of Buddhism flourishes in today’s world, and that its timeless wisdom is accessible to all.
What it reported doing in 2024
Published six issues of Lion's Roar, the best-selling and most widely-readEnglish-language Buddhist magazine, an award-winning bimonthly.Migrated Buddhadharma: The Practitioners Quarterly, an in-depth, practice-oriented journal for serious students of Buddhism from print quarterly print journal to online newsletter and custom website.Successful creation and delivery of courses and other online events from a variety ofwell known and respected teachers, including the important offering of The Dalai Lama Global Vision online summit. Additional online expansion of course offerings for a range of important meditation teachers.Continued to expand the content and audience of its website, lionsroar.com.
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 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 most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 76
- Transparency & Controls: 50
- Accountability: 81
- Sustainability: 36
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 84.3%; rating input score 84
- Program expense ratio: 77.6%; rating input score 78
- Fundraising efficiency: $6.76 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
- Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 83.3%; rating input score 83; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 7.4%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.38; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.37; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 11.6%; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -2% per year; rating input score 0; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 0.2% per year; rating input score 100; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.4% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 84.3% of revenue deployed · 77.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 12 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $80K · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes foreign activity
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2012 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 26/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 18/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 56/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 3/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 32/100.