Abhaya Fellowship
Legal name: The Abhaya Fellowship
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 471542811
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- El Cerrito, CA, United States
- Phone
- 6502195420
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Religion Related N.E.C.
- Affiliation
- Buddhism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $129,227
- Expenses
- $113,625
- Assets
- $1,917,672
- Liabilities
- $5,943
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JULIE BEAL (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- JIGME CHAKUNG (SPIRITUAL AD): $57,829 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Abhaya Fellowship is a Buddhist community founded by Chakung Jigme Wangdrak in 2014. The main goal of the fellowship is to practice the dharma or the path of awakening in the Buddhist tradition, particularly the Nyingma lineage of Dudjom Tersar. In addition to his training at Larung Gar, Rinpoche received teachings from a well known female teacher and descendant of Dudjom Lingpa, Dakini Kunzang Wangmo, who also encouraged him to teach and preserve the Dudjom lineage. Kunzang_Wangmo jpg While in Tibet, Rinpoche was responsible for the publication of many revelatory writings from Dudjom Lingpa and produced an original woodblock edition of the Nyingma Gyudbum, The 100,000 Tantras of the Nyingma Lineage, published at the Derge Printing House. Since 2011, Rinpoche has lived primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area and teaches to a number of Buddhist communities.
What it reported doing in 2025
The abhaya fellowship is a buddhist community founded by chakung jigme wangdrak in 2014. The main goal of the fellowship is to practice the dharma or the path of awakening in the buddhist tradition, particularly, the nyingma lineage of dudjom tersar. It functions as an umbrella for activities like meditations retreats, teachings and as a center for satellite sanghas or practice communities. Currently, the main teacher is chakung jigme wangdrak. He is a lineage holder as well as the descendent of dudjom lingpa. His activities are dedicated to maintain this fellowship so the precious tradition of the dudjom tersar will be kept alive and shared to many people in order to advance their spiritual development.
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
STRONG - 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 revenue has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 85
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 60
- Sustainability: 62
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 88.1%; rating input score 88
- 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; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 12.1%; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 16.88; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 50.9%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 12.6% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -3.4% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 2.3% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 88.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 4 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $100K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $58K · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 12 filing years from 2014 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 3/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 46/100.