AfB Spring Newsletter

-----Original Message----- 
From: Alliance for Bhikkhunis
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2015 7:07 PM

Subject: AfB Spring Newsletter

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Both exciting and difficult times in the life of bhikkhunis across the globe Since our newsletter last autumn, a lot has been happening with us here at AfB.
* We are moving forward with a comprehensive listing of bhikkhunis and bhikkhuni monasteries with volunteers from our wonderful supporters offering to help.
* We are continuing to support bhikkhunis and monasteries with financial support.
* Thanks to you! - Our fund raising activity continues to be strong, especially toward the latest disaster in Nepal by distributing funds to DhammaMoli.

Dhamma Moli (http://www.dhammamoli.org/index.htm) is a Buddhist project 
based in Nepal that provides shelter and education to young Nepalese girls 
at risk of falling victim to human traffickers who will sell them to 
brothels in India. We were asked by supporters of AfB to help channel monies 
for their assistance after the terrible earthquake there. As of this 
writing, events continue to unfold there. We hope to bring you more about 
this in our next newsletter.

The following is our annual fiscal year financial report, prepared by our 
treasurer, Donna McCarthy.

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Financial Report - Fiscal Year April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015
As this fiscal year came to a close, we looked back with much gratitude for 
the very generous support Alliance for Bhikkhunis has received during the 
past year.

This has been an unusual and exciting year for us. We received an 
unprecedented $27,724 in donations! Of that, a very special anonymous 
donation of $15,000 came from a very generous woman who was about to ‘take 
robes’. Another large donation of $4700 was from a woman who wanted to add 
to the medical fund for North American monastics. Once again, for the third 
year, we received a donation of $1542 (£1000) from an anonymous donor 
through the Camellia Foundation in the UK. Another generous donor gave $1000 
for the Vibhanga Translation Project. Two others each donated $500, and 
there were many other generous donations. While our donations come mainly 
from the US, we receive many generous donations from all over the world. 
This year we received donations from the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Sweden, 
Canada, Germany and Sri Lanka.

With these funds are very pleased to have been able to support numerous 
projects at monasteries and viharas, as well as the needs of individual 
bhikkhunis. To see where your donations have gone please see our 
website:http://www.bhikkhuni.net/projects-funded-2014/ and 
http://www.bhikkhuni.net/projects-funded-2015/.

AfB is an all-volunteer organization. Only 2% of funds go to administrative 
costs; 98% of the funds raised go directly to support of the bhikkhunis. A 
pretty good record for a charity! (Administrative costs are items like PO 
Box rental, website charges, printing Thank You cards and a number of wire 
transfer fees.)

Where did our expenditures go?
* 43.4% went to North American monasteries, viharas or bhikkhunis
* 27.2% supported healthcare premiums for North American bhikkhunis (NABA)
* 27.4% to Overseas monasteries or bhikkhunis
* 2% for administrative costs

As the Four-fold Sangha grows worldwide, we have been expanding our 
donations to these emerging sanghas. This year our overseas donations went 
to monasteries or bhikkhunis in: Australia (4), Sri Lanka (2), Thailand (1), 
Czech Republic (1), and Bangladesh (3 nuns.) .

Two of our fundraising efforts had been especially successful: 1) meeting 
Pavarana requests (http://www.bhikkhuni.net/project-2/) posted on our 
website and 2) International Bhikkhuni Day 
(http://www.bhikkhuni.net/4th-international-bhikkhuni-day/) .

Through the efforts of our former Pavarana Coordinator, Mindy Zlotnick, and 
our current Coordinator, Gwen Jones, we have offered a ‘Pavarana’ to 
bhikkhunis, an invitation to make it possible for them to let us know of 
their needs. Thanks to the talents of our web designer, Helen Geld, we have 
posted those requests on our website 
http://www.bhikkhuni.net/projects-2/project-requests/. This has resulted in 
raising $6242 for specified needs!! (Excluding the $15K donation, this was 
62% of our total $10,064 donations.) The Pavarana concept has been a great 
success! Your continued support of this concept will be much appreciated! 
Please check out the link above for current needs.

Another source of funding has been our annual International Bhikkhuni Day, 
started by our founder, Susan Pembroke and an original board member, 
Jacqueline Kramer, and held every fall. This year we raised a little over 
$500 from events around the world and related donations.

We are extremely grateful for your continued donations. With your support 
and donations (http://www.bhikkhuni.net/dana-offerings/) , the bhikkhuni 
sangha around the world is growing!

Anumodana!

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Finally, we invite you to take a look at some of our most recent articles on 
our web page:
* Interview with AfB President Michael Bratton by Brenna Artinger 
(http://www.bhikkhuni.net/a-path-to-mindful-service/)
* Interview With Venerable Bhikkhuni Thanasanti by Brenna Artinger 
(http://www.bhikkhuni.net/we-are-in-this-together/)
* You Just Need To Be Hungry: 
(http://www.bhikkhuni.net/2014/12/31/ayya-jayati/) An article and interview 
of recently ordained Ayya Jayati Bikkhuni by Margo Mallar

Thank you for your support of the bhikkhuni sangha. Together we are making a 
diference!

Michael Bratton
President, Alliance for Bhikkhunis

Photo by Michael Bratton

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