Photo: Manuel Bauer
How You Can Help
The Mind & Life Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that has been supported since 1987 by an exceptional group of deeply committed and visionary benefactors. To continue with our transformative mission, we seek support at all levels from many new individuals and foundations. Multi-year commitments affirm your dedication to the important work of the Institute, keep us on a stable footing, and enable us to plan both current and future scientific investigations with confidence.
How to Support
Donors are welcome to make gifts of any amount to the Mind & Life Institute. As we build our expanding family of friends, supporters, contemplatives, scientists and scholars, we all work together to each do our part in cultivating the field of Contemplative Science with the big vision of alleviating suffering and promoting well-being worldwide. The Mind & Life Institute is grateful for every contribution, which helps us collectively work towards our vision.
Sustaining Partners are committed to supporting the mission and work of the Mind & Life Institute with an ongoing, yearly pledge at their giving level. Sustaining Partners understand that multi-year philanthropic commitments provide financial stability and invigorate our capacity to expand and grow our work and the field.
Project Sponsors focus their gifts on a particular program or area of research and underwrite its costs, either on a multi-year pledge basis or by annual contributions. Scientific pilot projects, the Mind and Life Summer Research Institute, and archival preservation are the specific reasons that the Mind & Life Institute exists. Your support in any of these areas, at any gift level, is deeply appreciated.
Sustaining Patrons ensure the long range viability of the Mind & Life Institute, and are our most honored financial partners and members of our Mind and Life family. The key element of Sustaining Patronage is the commitment for multiple years of support. Generally people begin with a 5 year commitment with the expectation that if they continue to be pleased with the work and progress of Mind and Life, they will renew. The current level of Sustaining Patronage is $30,000 to $100,000 per year; which translates into a commitment of $150,000 to $500,000 over five years. In appreciation of their deep commitment to the Mind & Life Institute, we extend special invitations to Sustaining Patrons to attend our Mind and Life public and private events.
Planned Giving: With a planned gift, you can create a lasting legacy for generations to come. Planned gifts can be made while living, providing benefits to the giver, or through bequeath. A planned gift can retain income and defer, reduce or eliminate capital gains taxes, generate a charitable income tax deduction, reduce or eliminate estate, gift, or generation-skipping taxes. Planned giving will help us plan for and achieve our long-range vision and goals.
These pledges of support are of such value that we encourage all those interested in committing amounts of $5,000 and more annually to speak personally with the Chairman, Adam Engle, and our staff. Your interest and generosity are greatly appreciated!
You may contact the Institute by phone, email, or letter, as follows:
Chris O’Brien
Development and Communications Officer
Mind & Life Institute
7007 Winchester Circle, Suite 100
Boulder, CO 80301
Phone: 303-530-1940
You can make gifts in the following three ways:
- By Mail: Mail your check, and/or pledge of gifts up to $5,000 to:
Mind & Life Institute
7007 Winchester Circle, Suite 100
Boulder, CO 80301
Attention: Development and Communications Officer - Online: Please go to Make a Pledge or Gift Online to review the pledge or gift timeframes, amounts, and the funds to which you may wish to contribute.”
- Direct Contact: Phone or email Chairman Adam Engle or a member of the staff to discuss sustaining and multi-year gifts at levels of $5,000 or above.
What We Seek to Accomplish
The Mind & Life Institute seeks support to meet its objectives in four areas:
- Support to strengthen and sustain the Mind & Life Institute’s overall mission:
$50,000 to $300,000 per year will ensure the mission of the Mind & Life Institute continues, enabling us to continue to expand the field of Contemplative Science by planning conferences, coordinating researchers, contemplatives and research centers, and disseminating important findings. We are seeking Sustaining Patrons who will make a three- to five-year commitment to support our work. - Support for educating the next generation of scientists and Buddhists:
$50,000 to $125,000 per year will help educate up-and-coming researchers as well as young Buddhists and contemplatives of various traditions. Scientists commit to their life’s work early in their careers, and contemplatives often require strong support to participate in dialogues and studies. The Mind & Life Institute seeks to engage them in dialogue and expose them to research possibilities through our Summer Research Institute, our Francisco J. Varela Research Awards, as well as other research awards in basic and clinical sciences and humanities. By fostering a cadre of young scientists now, we can ensure that the field of Contemplative Sciences will have the core research strength and rigor needed to grow in the years to come. - Support for pilot research projects:
$50,000 to $125,000 per year will help support pilot research in new areas of Contemplative Science, including the humanities and education, The National Institutes of Health (NIH) seldom funds new ideas. Instead, federal money goes to research findings generated by promising pilot studies. Our work over the decades has proven that if we can support and fund successful pilot studies, researchers can often leverage results into larger follow-on funding from federal and other sources. Our expertise and experience has given us the discernment and wisdom to know exactly where pilot funding would be best allocated in order to advance the field. - Support to preserve and distribute media archives:
$150,000 will help us digitize and archive more than 20 years of recording meetings in various audio and video formats. Some of these media are in danger of disintegrating and being lost forever. We seek to transfer this vital material into a stable medium and make it available to researchers and others in digital format over the Web, guaranteeing its availability into the future.
