Healthy Buddhist Communities Grant Program

Community Support Grants

Grant objective

Hemera has been active in promoting contemplative practice since 2008, and in particular, has been supporting Buddhist retreat centers since 2014, helping Contemplative Practice Fellowship recipients to attend meditation retreats at partner centers and providing general support where helpful. In 2018, several meditation centers suffered scandals emerging from ethical breaches on the part of the teachers. Recognizing the importance of creating safe environments for our fellows and contemplative practitioners in general, Hemera seeks to support centers seeking to promote organizational and cultural changes that protect students from abuse. To help achieve this goal, Hemera will support initiatives to increase education about clergy and other forms of abuse among Buddhist communities and teachers and cultivate organizational and leadership practices that reduce the likelihood of abuse while fostering greater transparency and openness. Hemera is particularly interested in identifying and developing strong models for professional supervision for Buddhist teachers.

Program description

Hemera Foundation cordially invites you to submit a proposal for funding for projects that strengthen ethical policies and practices, improves teacher supervision, or develops strategies reduce the potential for abuse in Buddhist communities. We are seeking requests from individual Buddhist communities to develop or support implementation of these practices. We anticipate funding Community Support Grants at levels between US$2,000 and US$10,000 for periods of up to two years in duration.

Preference will be given to proposals that advance the following aims, which we believe are critical for preventing abuse in Buddhist communities.

  1. Strengthening the education and training of those in teaching and leadership roles around professional ethics, ethical use of power, and pastoral roles and responsibilities. 

  2. Strengthening community education around religious abuse, healthy boundaries, and the limits of the teacher/student relationship.

  3. Creating and implementing effective “model” policies and procedures supporting organizational transparency, whistleblower and abuse reporting, and grievance resolution and remediation. 

  4. Creating effective education and training for administrative leaders, board members, and others charged with maintaining accountable leadership and governance. 

  5. Strengthening teacher supervision and support, including peer supervision/ peer accountability processes, to addresses all important areas of personal and professional conduct.

  6. Promoting discussions between teachers and leaders from different communities about right conduct for clergy aimed at cultivating a greater awareness of and reflection upon norms within lineages and in the wider context of Buddhism in North America.

All grantees will be required to report on their grants and the actions taken with grant funds.

Who can apply

We invite applications from organizations that:

  • are public charities or religious organizations with a 501(c)(3) determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service, or have a documented agreement with a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor; or

  • have analogous status in their country of domicile.

This opportunity is not open to individual applicants.

How to apply

Please submit a proposal that includes the following elements:

  1. Organizational need and project rationale

    1. Including a self-assessment of the need for this project

    2. Include a description of your current policies and procedures and what you seek to amend or update

  2. Proposed project overview

  3. Project timeline and implementation plan

  4. Key personnel

  5. Budget

  6. Evaluation plan

Applicants should also include a copy of the organization’s 501(c)(3) IRS determination letter or EIN, or documentation of the fiscal sponsorship arrangement. If the applicant organization is domiciled outside the United States, please provide copies of documents that establish its status in its country of domicile.

Community Support Grants should be submitted to jeremy@hemeragregnant.org by August 13, 2021. Deadlines for further rounds of funding will be announced by Hemera as available.