Massachusetts · Nonprofit
POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION
POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION (Massachusetts) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $361,942 to it, the largest being Boston Foundation Inc ($150,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 73% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $670k
- Funders on record
- 9
- Grants received
- $362k
- Net assets
- $392k
What Pointing Out the Great Way Foundation does
Mission
Pointing Out the Great Way Foundation(pogwf) brings indo-tibetan meditation and teachings to western students and nurtures and supports the community of practitioners. In turn, pogwf provides support to the indigenous communities and lineage teachers to help them to preserve and restore their culture and traditions.historically, pogwf generally has not provided programming to achieve its mission. The majority of our objectives involve directing donor funds to other organizations, both in the us and abroad, who implement the stated projects. Out translation projets are a notable exception.pogwf is an all-volunteer organization.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The mustang culture and education centre(mcec), based in jomsom, mustang nepal, is a registered social organization aimed at supporting the education of local children, bettering living conditions of the village population, and preserving its unique culture and traditions.mcec has identified as an ongoing imperative the need to restore the cultural and spiritual traditions for the indigenous tibetan population living in this area of nepal. The bon, the indigenous and oldest religion of tibet, has strong roots in mustang. The religious practices of bon, centered around local monasteries, have traditionally been the heart of culture and religious life for the indigenous population in this region. However, currently no bon po monastery exists in the area to support these practices for the local population. Mcec's objective is to construct, on land donated by the community, an indigenous spiritual and cultural campus in jomsom, the administrative center of mustang.mcec's vision for the campus includes:*a main bon temple and living space for 100 monks;*a youth hostel for 100 children-all learing their indigenous tibetan language and spiritual practices; and*a 50-room guest house for…
$508,434 spent$669,553 earned by the program99% of program spendingOur translation projects currently are the primary focus for fulfilling our mission to bring indo-tibetan meditation and teachings to western students. In 2025, pogwf continued its funding of the translation of bon and buddhist meditation texts. The objective is to bring the precious lineage teachings of these indo-tibetan meditation practices to the west, translated in a form of meditation that is readily understandable by westerners and yet preserve the heart of these teachinhgs in their original form. Our foundation will hold the copyright to these published works and provide stewardship of the publications into the future.translation of this material requires specialized knowledge, including deep experience with indo-tibetan meditation practices and knowledge of the tibetan language. The translators are daniel brown, ph.d. And geshe sonam gurung. They translate these precious texts with permission by and under the guidance of his holiness menri trizin, the spiritual leader and lineage holder of the bon po and head abbott of menri monastery, dolanji, india. Dr. Brown is director, the center for integrative psychotherapy in newton, ma and associate clinical professor of…
$2,768 spent1% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $511,202.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $1.5M to $391k (−73%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
100% of POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (100% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Dianne Des Roches
President & CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income fell $67k → $18k.
5 of 9 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 73% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
73% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 53% · 2020 57% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
29% of POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
73% of POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $98k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 4 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $264k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 7,334 religion nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,334 religion nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
97% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION?
- POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION (Massachusetts) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $361,942 to it, the largest being Boston Foundation Inc ($150,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 73% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $361,942 in grants to POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION?
- Boston Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $150,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like POINTING OUT THE GREAT WAY FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Pointing Out the Great Way →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 9 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing