Fund Raising Letter

Dear ,

I am pretty excited about a vision I have. Imagine if every member of Iskcon capable of presenting Krishna consciousness to the public were able to support themselves teaching bhakti full time (a brahminical revolution!). And imagine that these brahmanas were as good as the best professional facilitators and speakers in the world Iskcon to the place it belongs in the world. I am desperate to make this happen.

So, let me explain what I am doing now and why I can’t do it all alone, and thus why I am asking for our support.
Two years ago my company, Soul Tools, started seriously developing a business model to facilitate live and online training (with a focus on a broader demographic than our temples attract). This is called infopreneurship, creating income by delivering knowledge.

“If anybody calls for meeting and lecturing, we must charge. And if they want to hear free, they may come to our temple. Don’t become cheap. My Guru Maharaja used to say: ‘If somebody becomes cheap, then nobody hears him.’” Montreal, October 26, 1968.

Personally, I feel it is one of the most important yet neglected areas in development of Iskcon’s outreach. Yes, it is a challenge, because it requires business sophisticationand highly trained presenters, but it can and must be done. And when we do it, we will open up a huge field of opportunities of which, to date, we have never taken advantage..
The ramifications are powerful.

First, we can provide facilities for devotees to be trained to professionally speak, facilitate and/or coach and thus earn a living presenting bhakti. This means that both brahmacaris who someday plan to live outside the temple, and those already living outside, would have the opportunity to pursue careers as spiritual teachers within a structured organization. This has tremendous ramifications if you consider how much further Krishna consciousness would have spread were we able to do this years ago. Perhaps thousands of devotees who are presently part of the work force would now be professionally delivering our teachings (or doing the back-up support for the delivery of).

But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Imagine that the courses we deliver are so effectively designed and delivered that within a two or three day workshop (through professional presentations and powerful interactive and self-reflective exercises), people transform their lives in a way that many (or even most) of them become inspired to take up some daily practices of Krishna consciousness and/or pursue further education or coaching with us.

But it gets even better. And this is where it gets really exciting. Imagine that a certain percentage of people are so inspired that they want to seriously share what they learned with others, and that we are able to professionally train them (provided they follow specific devotional principles) to deliver the very course that transformed them (either one on one, or to a small or large crowd) in a way that the same transformation is guaranteed to happen for those they teach!

It gets amazingly exciting when you imagine how this can snowball. More teachers mean more students. More students means eventually there will be more teachers. Then, if we have more teachers we make more students. And the cycle continues and the snowball becomes an avalanche! With this system in place, within a decade we could have five or ten times the number of full-time preachers than we have today, all administering a systematic approach to teaching Krishna bhakti that deeply impacts people, and doing this in circles previously unavailable to us.
But is this actually possible?

Actually, this idea is not mine. I have studied other organizations who use this same model. One such organization that was founded 20 years later than Iskcon now has close to 15,000 professionally trained facilitators. I would venture to say we probably have less than 2000 full time preachers because the only devotees who can dedicate all of their time are brahmacaris, the retired or those financially supported by a temple or project. Keep in mind that these groups are especially rare outside of India.

Our goal at Soul Tools is to create an organization that develops intelligently designed courses (introductions, short seminars, full workshops, retreats, corporate training and coaching, both live and online) that can present our teachings in a way that is easily digestible, understandable, and fully applicable in daily life. And because of its practical benefit people will be willing to pay for it.

Another benefit is that our presentations are designed within the context of spiritual self-development, not religion, and this is a market we have barely tapped into, larger and often more open and receptive than the typical demographic we tend to cater to (students, the yoga and kirtan crowd, alternative communities, etc.). In other words, there is a huge mainstream audience sincerely looking for spirituality devoid of external religious trappings.
I want to share with you several realizations I have had over the past two years of trying to develop our company along the above lines.

First, as I said, this market is huge, and for the most part we are missing it. Or if we try to catch some of it we can easily lose it because we need programs that are systematic and relevant and also transformative enough to motivate the “spiritual but not religious” people to go further with our education and practices.

Second, people today have many more choices in the field of Eastern, alternative and self-development spirituality than ever before. Because we are not well positioned in this market, organizations whose teachings are similar to ours but who have adapted their marketing and presentations to the way modern people approach spirituality have carved out a strong place for themselves in this niche. When we don’t adapt to the changes in society well enough to be as relevant and meaningful as many other groups, people who might have otherwise become interested in Krishna consciousness go to other organizations who are either more visible, relatable, or professional in their approach. In other words, the competition out there is stiff.

And the last reason is that the last two years of trying to develop my company with a few part-time volunteers has taught me one important lesson (or should I say confirmed my intuition): we can’t develop a company to the professional standard that’s required for us to realize the above mentioned dreams with part-time help and no financial backing. I’ve tried hard to do it this way, but it doesn’t work well. For a project of this importance and potential impact to succeed – and to make it a prototype that can be copied worldwide and thus make a huge difference in Iskcon – a stronger financial base is needed to create a well equipped infrastructure is essential (at least for a few more years until we can become self-sufficient).

And this is why I have decided to launch a campaign.

The potential for growth through intelligently designed education and franchising is huge. Other religious groups with sufficient financial backing are doing this as we speak, and it is become increasingly really difficult for me to stand on the sidelines and not make it happen for us.

So if all this makes sense to you and feel inspired to help me develop something that could be totally amazing, read on.

Our baseline budget for this year is around $125,575 (about $10,500 a month). We need this to build the infrastructure which will enable us to become solvent in a few years. So for now I need to create a supportive group around this project, just as congregations support temples or a donor base supports a school, food distribution, etc.
Perhaps the nature of this funding campaign is a bit different from what you are used to. What we are really asking is for you to support brahmanas and brahminical work. As you may know, in ancient times brahmans, because of their importance, were supported by society. But brahminical support has taken a back seat to other projects, even though adult educational is one of our most important needs.

Thank you for reading this donation letter. Our projected budget is itemized below. It gives you a more detailed idea of our specific financial needs. Of course, it is not necessary that you sponsor the full amount of any of our specific needs (although that would certainly be wonderful.)

Your servant,
Mahatma das

PS I would appreciate it if you can share this letter with others who you think would be sympathetic to this project.
Operating Budget for 2016 – $125,575 (approximately $10,500 per month)

Wherever possible, we will try to engage capable volunteers to cut costs.

App for the Mantra Project – $3500
This will enable people to join our mantra project on their phones, download classes, and share the app with others (and to even chant japa on their phones).

App for Mahatma Wisdom – $800 for iphone (it has been done for android)
Devotees will receive a quote a day from my writings or workshops on their phones and also be informed of where my seminars are being offered.

2 Apps for Soul Tools – $3000
The same as above, but the quotes are written for people who are not practicing devotees.

Website upgrade for Soul Tools and Soul Tools Corporate – $2000
We have developed two barebones websites but we neither have the time or expertise to bring them to a real professional level.

Website upgrade for Mantra Project – $3000
This site is intended to be a member site with a variety of articles, blogs and online classes, and will also require hiring devotees to write copy and work on developing online classes.

Rent for Soul Tools office – $12000 per year
We have set up our main headquarters in Mexico and require office space now as well as secondary facilities in Mayapur.

Office furniture – $1750
Support for Soul Tools staff of 5 devotees for up to one year – $8000 per month ($72,000 per year).
We require devotees for marketing, sales, web maintenance, audio/visual, graphics, logistics, coaching and facilitation.

Printing of Mahatma Wisdom (ready for print Jan’16) – $2500 for 3000 copies (plus set up costs for ISBN number, etc.)
This is a book of quotes taken from my writings and workshops especially written for those unfamiliar with bhakti. If you want to order advanced copies, let me know – it will make a nice present for those new to bhakti.

Printing of Mahatma Wisdom Spanish (ready for print spring ’16) – $2500 for 3000 copies (plus costs for ISBN number, etc.)
Translation is 80% finished. If you want to order advanced copies, please contact me.

Printing of Living the Wisdom of Bhakti (ready for print end of ’16) – $3300 for 3000 copies (plus set up costs for ISBN number, etc.)
This book consists of the newsletters I have written over the past 8 years. They have been re-written and edited, and grouped into categories. This is the first Krishna conscious self-help book in Iskcon. If you want to order advanced copies for your temple or project, please contact me).

Reprinting of Forever CD – $1000 for 2000 copies
This is my latest music CD.

Mail Chimp service for sending newsletters – $600 per year
This is our service provider for our newsletters.

Formation of Soul Tools non-profits in India, US and Mexico – $3200
We need to form non-profits in the main countries where Soul Tools in based. Therewill be more countries in the future.

Production of pen drives – $1000
Production cost is $10 per drive. One drive contains all my lectures and workshops (about 500 hours) and another contains all my music (about 13 hours).. I would like to start with at least 50 of my lectures and 50 of the music.

Marketing – $7000
The requires hiring professionals for branding, logo design, and developing online marketing campaign. It also requires training course for one of our devotees.

Travel – $7000
My yearly travel expenses (last year I travelled to 12 countries).