Why We Fundraise
Mountain Cloud is choosing a shared model of generosity — one where those with greater capacity help sustain access for the whole sangha. Rather than passing the full cost of operations onto members and participants, Mountain Cloud uses a mixed funding model that relies on charitable giving. This is not separate from practice, but its expression: helping create the conditions for others to encounter the dharma, now and in the future.
Our Commitment
Mountain Cloud’s core commitment is to help you weave practice into everyday life, over the course of your lifetime. Just like the meditation cushion, we want to be a trustworthy space that you can keep coming back to. We are invested in providing practice opportunities that are intimate and connective, with a real sense of sangha and high quality teachers and staff who can know you and your path.
That means keeping things affordable for our participants — maintaining a low-bar for entry to membership, access to teachers, and ongoing practice opportunities. To that end, we offer a robust menu of free weekly programming, provide scholarship options for retreats, and maintain multiple pathways for people to stay connected to practice throughout their many seasons of life. We don’t sacrifice quality, and work hard to ensure high quality AV experience for onliners, mindfully maintain our irreplaceable campus, and engage a rare roster of authorized teachers and qualified staff to care for this community.
All this carries real costs.
A Mixed Funding Model
Rather than passing the full cost directly onto members and participants, Mountain Cloud has intentionally developed a mixed funding model — one that combines program fees, memberships, charitable giving, grants, and partnerships. In practice, this means that charitable giving plays a major role in subsidizing affordability and accessibility across the organization.
While program fees support individual participation in practice, charitable giving helps ensure that this practice remains accessible, affordable, and available to all through scholarships, public programs, online teachings, land stewardship, sangha initiatives and gatherings. After all, our mission is to liberate, protect, and awaken all beings!
So what do we need?
If each of Mountain Cloud’s 360 members made a monthly gift of $30 (or $360 annually) it would meet all of Mountain Cloud’s charitable fundraising needs for the year!
That’s a dollar a day.
In 2026, Mountain Cloud needs to raise $131,000 in charitable giving in order to cover our costs. As of May we have already funded $43,000, or 1/3 of our need for this year!
In order to reduce fundraising fatigue for our members, we have divided our needs into two major campaigns: our Circle of Support and our Annual Fund. The Circle of Support invites sangha members giving $1400 or more to directly fund a week of our public dharma offerings. The Sustaining Campaign invites smaller gifts throughout the year to support a variety of other programming (like our scholarship program and podcast) and operational costs (like household improvements and maintenance).
Annual Fund
$64,000
Our Annual Fund supports the core operations of the organization including specific programs like:
- Scholarship Program – $15,000: We give ~ $15,000 in scholarships to ~120 practitioners facing barriers to entry who are young, old, on fixed incomes, activists & disenfranchised.
- “Zen Likes Things” – $12,700: Both our zoom and zendo have real material needs: e.g. a new microphone and replacing zafus.
- Community Service – $3,000: Each month local practitioners cook & serve a meal to some 100+ of our unhoused neighbors.
- Podcast – $4,750: Our free podcast includes weekly dharma talks as well as special interviews with contemplative leaders.
- Sangha Engagement – $14,000: Takes the shape of various community teas 4 days a week as well as our Intro Classes.
Click below to learn more about the programs and core operations supported by this Campaign.
Circle of Support
$67,000
The Circle of Support covers the majority of our free, public offerings through weekly program funding. For those who can give between $1,400 (funding 1 week) and $5,600 (funding 1 month), this is the best way to ensure that Mountain Cloud continues to keep its doors wide open to anybody seeking the dharma, any day of the week! These donors join a group of volunteers and staff in supporting the heartbeat of our center.
- Community zazen 7 days a week
- Formal Dharma Talk
- Wisdom Wedensday
- Public book group
- All hybrid, all public, all free!
- We see 1,200 visits to zendo each month!
Click below to learn more about what it means to join this “Circle of Support”.
Ways to Give
1. Make a one-time or recurring gift to our Annual Fund.
Go to our Donation Form below and select “Automatic monthly repeating donation,” “Automatic annually repeating donation, ” or “one-time donation”. Or, write a check to Mountain Cloud Zen Center, 7241 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe New Mexico. While all gifts go to our general Annual Fund, you can name which program or cause motivated your gift in the comments or your check memo. This helps us learn what our sangha members are most committed to. Request a tax-deductible receipt from us directly.
2. Join our Circle of Support.
Participate in the Circle of Support by sponsoring 1 or more weeks of practice with a gift of $1,400 per week. (For example, 2 weeks = $2,800, 4 weeks= $5,600.) Join the Circle Now Or Learn More.
3. Learn About Planned Giving.
Did you know, you can make a gift to Mountain Cloud in your Will, allocate Qualified Charitable Distributions (QDCs) or Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), or gift assets or stock? Read more about Planned Giving Here or reach out directly to Sarah@mountaincloud.org.
