North Carolina · Nonprofit
Southern Dharma Retreat Center
Southern Dharma Retreat Center (North Carolina) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $392,444 to it, the largest being COASTAL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SOUTH CAROLINA INC ($165,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $834k
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $392k
- Net assets
- $1.7M
What Southern Dharma Retreat Center does
Mission
The mission of Southern Dharma Retreat Center (SDRC) is to provide mediation retreats, provide dharma instruction, and support communites grounded in Buddhist practice traditions.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Southern Dharma Retreat Center is a place of refuge offering education, meditation, contemplation and silence in a remote retreat setting, facilitated by teachers of varying traditions. Southern Dharma Retreat Center is a meditation center whose purpose is to offer and promote programming representing a variety of spiritual traditions, with the goal of providing a comfortable gathering place, removed from the distractions of everyday life, while creating an atmosphere supportive of quiet reflection where one can access and nurture a sense of peace and uncover the truth within the heart. For the 2023 calendar year, a total of 36 retreats were conducted. Retreats ranged from 2-10 nights in length, for a total of 119 retreat nights. Retreats were offered by 28 teachers and attended by 885 participants with subject offerings andteachers representing a variety of buddhist traditions. Sdrc awarded partial or full scholarships and fellowships to 47 retreat attendees, or approximately 5.3% of attendees. In addition to permanent staff, retreat operations were supported by 22 retreat volunteers for a total of 1,224 volunteer hours.
$520,512 spentof which $66,850 as grants$695,717 earned by the program94% of program spendingThe center's purpose is to promote awareness of the value of meditation, contemplation and silence as a way to uncover the truths within the heart. For the 2023 calendar year, a total of 36 retreats were conducted. Retreats ranged from 2-10 nights in length, for a total of 119 retreat nights. Retreats were offered by 28 teachers and attended by 885 participants with subject offerings and teachers representing a variety of buddhist traditions. Sdrc awarded partial or full scholarships and fellowships to 47 retreat attendees, or approximately 5.3% of attendees. In addition to permanent staff, retreat operations were supported by 22 retreat volunteers for a total of 1,224 volunteer hours.
$33,423 spent6% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $553,935.
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 2018 to 2019, from $1.0M to $1.3M (+24%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2020 10% · 2021 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
58% of Southern Dharma Retreat Center’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue 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. 0 of the last 8 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $16k → $45k.
9 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 70% 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 Southern Dharma Retreat Center’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
Southern Dharma Retreat Center leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 81%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
70% 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 Southern Dharma Retreat Center.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 94% · 2018 94% · 2019 48% · 2020 62% · 2021 79% · 2022 90% · 2023 55% — diversifying over time.
“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
60% of Southern Dharma Retreat Center's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 31% 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
70% of Southern Dharma Retreat Center'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 $117k that is directly attributable, 87% of it comes from funders outside North Carolina, across 4 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $276k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
Southern Dharma Retreat Center runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 12,843 religion nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,843 religion nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Southern Dharma Retreat Center
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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 Southern Dharma Retreat Center: 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 Southern Dharma Retreat Center?
- Southern Dharma Retreat Center (North Carolina) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $392,444 to it, the largest being COASTAL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SOUTH CAROLINA INC ($165,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Southern Dharma Retreat Center have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $392,444 in grants to Southern Dharma Retreat Center, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Southern Dharma Retreat Center?
- COASTAL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SOUTH CAROLINA INC is the largest funder on record, with $165,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Southern Dharma Retreat Center find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 Southern Dharma Retreat Center →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 16 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing