30/30/30 Plan–News
Listen to Geshe Michael talk about the 30/30/30 Plan:
Geshe Michael launched the 30/30/30 Plan with some enticing promises at Diamond Mountain during the Medicine Buddha/Nagarjuna retreat in October 2023, and we are steadily growing our group of participants. We've achieved about 32% of our goal of onboarding 1000 donors in 2024.
And we have an update on the Plan: Geshe Michael will begin producing the 100 Steps on the Path meditation videos this year! We are working out all the details on the production schedule, and once we get this moving, our plan is to pre-release one video per month. This will be exclusive early content to those who subscribe to our 30/30/30 campaign.
ACI’s main goal in launching the 30/30/30 Plan is to ease the burden of fundraising for Geshe Michael and make it possible for him to concentrate more on his translating and teaching that benefits the whole world.
"Geshe Michael is one of the best fundraisers I know, yet when he dedicates his precious time to focus on raising money instead of finishing work that only he is capable of doing," said Timothy D. Lowenhaupt, Executive Director of Asian Classics Institute, "it's too much. He's one of the most valuable resources on the planet when it comes to Buddhist knowledge, its translation from Tibetan into modern languages as well as its application in modern life. Our goal is to become self-sustaining financially so he spends his precious time translating and teaching."
To address this, ACI has worked with Geshe Michael to create our 30/30/30 Plan. Geshe Michael committed to the vision, and ACI is getting behind the vision to implement it.
What's the vision again? If, and only if, ACI can get 1000 donors in 2024 to sign up to give $30/month, by 2030 Geshe Michael will be able to:
Finish teaching Pabongka Rinpoche's Liberation Thrust into the Palm of Your Hand, that he began in 2010
Teach us the emptiness chapter from Je Tsongkapa's Lam Rim Chen Mo
Create 100 video meditations on Steps on the Path by 2030
Give us 100 Steps on the Path images to help 21st century people understand and implement the learnings of the Steps to apply them to their daily lives
This is an amazing gift bag of dharma goodies. Supporting the gift by signing up to give $30/month will have the additional benefit of freeing Geshe Michael from the backbreaking work of raising funds to keep ACI going. He has said that Tim Lowenhaupt has the most difficult job of any Worldview director, because Tim is tasked with keeping the teachings flowing at the same time that ACI is not permitted to charge for them! ACI teachings are, always have been, and always will be, free to anyone who wants them. So it's up to all of us to keep the money flowing in at a sufficient rate to keep the doors open.
"We've got a lot of costs, especially in the post-Covid Zoom era, to make the teachings available," says Tim. "First of all, we offer them in 17 languages. It keeps our small paid staff overwhelmingly busy to organize all that, and I really need to help them out by hiring more paid helpers. The technology to make Zoom teachings available around the world--we offer maybe six to eight classes per week--costs a lot. We have to buy more and better equipment constantly. Software licenses cost money. We frequently host ceremonies, like Offering to Teachers and fire ceremonies. If you've ever attended one of these, you know both that they are magnificent and they involve a lot of preparation and purchasing. We support our teachers, including Geshe Michael–who do not get paid–with food, lodging and transportation costs And we give a lot of scholarships too! Our costs are constantly mounting. So we're asking for your help."
If you know anyone who would be interested in helping out, or if you’d like to become a participant in the 30/30/30 Plan, click on the link below. It will help to spread the teachings around the world and continue to train more teachers to offer classes and programs in the many languages we have. It will also help you plant the seeds of generosity, by ensuring that everyone gets the dharma bag of goodies that Geshe Michael is promising.
