Dear Friends,

IMSB is ready to grow into it's own space. We have created a Building fund and have been given a $10,000 matching grant to help us on our way!

Since its founding in 2006, Insight Meditation South Bay has become much more than a meditation group. We offer a full program of sitting groups, classes, study groups, retreats, and individual guidance introducing mindfulness-based meditation practices to hundreds of students each year. In addition to our core meditation program, we offer community building activities, social events, and charitable projects to integrate the experience of wisdom and peace in everyday activities and in our communities.

Over the past year, we have worked to create a vision of a new home for IMSB—a space of our own in the South Bay or Silicon Valley area, in a tranquil, convenient setting. With a place of our own, we would be able to serve as a genuine refuge of peace, and as a center for mindfulness education in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Shaila Catherine and the IMSB Board of Directors, together with some wonderful volunteers, have been studying options for developing a space of our own. From discussions with leaders and members of other meditation groups, it is clear that many groups with a similar mission have successfully expanded their programming and broadened the types of services they could offer once they acquired permanent facilities, and increased membership. However, it’s also clear that this is a big step that calls for thoughtful planning and sober recognition of the cost and commitment involved. Based on our investigations of the local real estate market, the Board of Directors has concluded that a realistic first step would be to lease a modest facility in the local area. Obviously, the initial challenge to achieving this step will be funding.

The funding challenge has two parts:

First, we estimate that we will need a Building Fund of at least $60,000 to cover initial costs. This would include first and last month rental deposit and funds for renovating and furnishing whatever space we select. We will, of course, call upon volunteers to help with renovations, but substantial costs are still anticipated.

Second, we need an assured income stream to cover our monthly expenses before we commit to monthly rental payments. Rental costs for a new space will be much higher than our current rent for the use of Edward’s Hall at St. Timothy’s Church. We have set a target figure of $5,000 per month for ongoing rental costs. Commitments from the IMSB community in this amount will create the necessary financial stability to explore and secure a suitable location.

We have already made a good start toward meeting the funding challenge. Last year’s highly successful dinner/auction event raised just over $15,000. The Board has allocated $10,000 of the auction proceeds toward the IMSB Building Fund. These funds and all future Building Fund contributions will be dedicated to space needs—renovation, furnishing, and rental of whatever spaces are used for various IMSB events, and perhaps at some future point, a down payment or mortgage payments and associated costs for a purchased facility.

We are now asking for monthly pledges to our Building Fund. This will be a new cost for IMSB. We continue to rely on current monthly contributions, dana offered at IMSB events, our year-end appeal, and occasional fund raising events to meet our regular operating expenses. With the exception of our present rental costs at St. Timothy’s and elsewhere, these expenses will all continue. Our approach is to ask for monthly contributions beginning now, before we actually move. Funds contributed before we acquire a new space are meant to accumulate toward the $60,000 needed for initial costs. After the move, these continuing monthly donations will sustain IMSB in its new location.

As an incentive to encourage you to make a commitment for a monthly donation, a generous donor has offered up to $10,000 to match monthly pledges two for one. For example, for every new pledge of $100 per month, an additional one-time contribution of $200 will be added to the Building Fund. Thus, if IMSB members pledge a total of $5,000, we will receive an additional $10,000 in matching gifts. Our Building Fund will immediately grow from the initial $10,000 in auction proceeds, with the addition of $5000 from IMSB contributions and $10,000 in matching funds bringing the balance up to $25,000. In just seven months, the same $5,000 in on-going monthly pledges would add another $35,000—reaching our $60,000 initial goal and simultaneously establishing an income stream of $5,000 per month to cover rental costs into the future.

We can do this together. The goal is ambitious, but it is attainable if everyone helps. Scheduled monthly donations can be made through most banks and on-line bank accounts, thereby avoiding transaction fees. Alternatively, you can set up recurring donations using a credit card or PayPal through Network for Good by clicking “Dana and Generosity” and then “Donate Online” on the IMSB website (imsb.org).

This is an exciting time for IMSB, and we hope that everyone will get involved in the discussions, visioning, and planning as we move forward. Our organization is built and sustained by the great efforts of many volunteers working together—helping in countless ways, not just financially. All of us are constantly receiving one another’s efforts, energies, and gifts of all kinds in a spirit of joy and gratitude.

Thank you for helping however you can as we find our new home.

Sincerely,

Doug Slakey , IMSB President
Ed Haertel , IMSB Treasurer
Shaila Catherine, Principal Teacher
Brenda Fox, IMSB Board Member