Dear BCA Members and Friends:
Carrying the Dharma Forward
When, over 124 years ago, our fellow Jodo Shinshu Buddhist forebears requested that our home Temple in Kyoto, Japan. send ministers to share the Dharma in the United States and created Sanghas where they lived, when our forebears refused to give up Jodo Shinshu Buddhism while incarcerated in U.S. World War II concentration camps, and when our forebears rebuilt and created new Temples, Sanghas, the Buddhist Churches of America organization and the Institute of Buddhist Studies after the war, they cherished the teachings that are available for those who have followed. Jodo Shinshu Buddhist teachings will always be relevant for people working to understand human nature, the root cause of suffering and what the future might hold.
It is our time to assure that the Dharma is carried forward for ourselves and for others by supporting our Temples, Sanghas, the IBS and the BCA.
The far-reaching Dharma Forward program of the BCA and the IBS will touch us and others in many ways as the conditions of our lives continually change. Creating and maintaining the technological base to share and receive the teachings, continually refreshing and expanding the educational foundation for the teachings and preparing the people who will share them with us and others and assuring that the needed facilities will be available are funded through the Dharma Forward campaign.
2021 BCA Endowment Foundation Results
The Endowment Foundation manages the investments for the BCA, IBS and 27 affiliated organizations. A very heated economy withstood medical and socio/political turmoil over two preceding years and began to respond to concerns about a more mobile workforce with changing attitudes, inflation and uncertain public policy in 2021.
This past year, the Endowment Growth Fund showed a return of 10.3 percent, which compares to an average of 20 percent returned in each of the two prior years. The trend is toward potential ups and downs in the coming year and consequently investing in equities such as the Growth Fund should be part of a longer multi-year strategy that can accommodate a potential loss along with gains.
The overall investment earnings in 2021 was $3,948,969 and $1,136,703 was disbursed. Total assets managed by the Endowment increased from $42 million to $48 million, due to investment returns, donations and deposits into custodial accounts. As of Dec. 31, 2021, the Dharma Forward campaign has collected $5.2 million of the $15 million target which is 35% toward the goal.
Please consider joining in assuring Jodo Shinshu Buddhism teachings will always be available to us and others by contributing to Dharma Forward.
If you need any assistance in doing so, please contact Michiko Inanaga, Director of Development, at the BCA Endowment Foundation at minanaga@bcahq.org or 415-651-5164
In Gassho,
Charles Ozaki President BCA Endowment Foundation
This hot economy had survived medical and socio-political turbulence over the previous two years and was now responding positively to play tic tac toe concerns about a more mobile workforce with shifting attitudes as well as inflation and an uncertain public sector.