Thursday

Meet the Sakyong Foundation

Sakyong Foundation Staff (from left): Jeff Waltcher, Jane Vosper, and Lisa Johnston

by Lisa Johnston

The Sakyong Foundation is a non-profit organization whose main goal is to support all aspects of our mandala’s growth and sustainability for many years to come. Our four main project include: Living Peace, Shambhala Community, Endowments, and Preserving Tibetan Culture.

To learn more about our mission, visit our website: http://www.sakyongfoundation.org/

When I decided to leave my staff position as Executive Assistant at Shambhala Mountain Center, I didn’t have a clue what to do next. At 42, I wasn’t going to go back to my old life in Berlin as a duo trapeze artist. I’d heard that Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche had said, “If you’re practicing, the right opportunities present themselves.” I headed up to the stupa with the thought of not seeing it everyday looming on the horizon and figured whatever was next would be really good.

I soon received a call from my friend Jane Vosper about a possible job with The Sakyong Foundation. There was no website and not much information gleaned through attempts to study up for the interview. I only knew that Jeff Waltcher was the Executive Director and Jane worked part-time as Director of Operations. Soon I would move to Boulder and become the first full-time staff member as Development and Communications Liaison for the Sakyong’s foundation. One of my first tasks was to make sure that people didn’t refer to it as the Sakyong’s foundation, but rather as The Sakyong Foundation.

A little tricky however, as it is in fact the Sakyong’s foundation.

Sakyong Foundation Mission Statement

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche established the Sakyong Foundation in the Spring of 2006 to provide support to organizations and projects throughout the world whose activities exemplify the vision of Shambhala: a contemplative tradition grounded in the view that the path to peace for individuals and society is based on the cultivation of universal human qualities of wisdom, compassion and courage.

To highlight just one area of our recent work, our Shambhala Community projects include three successful matching grant campaigns over the last two years: the first benefiting Shambhala Core Services, the second increasing membership and support for local centers, and another establishing support for the Dorje Kasung. I am happy to report you can now read about all of these on The Sakyong Foundation website.

Currently we are in discussions about our next matching grant campaign, to be rolled out later this month. In one such call with President Reoch, I noticed he still refers to us as the Sakyong’s foundation… I guess I still have some work to do!