Imagine
In 1980, not long after Jim Hare had moved from Eugene, Oregon to San Francisco, John Lennon was killed. The next day at the S.F. Zen center, all attendees of the morning service were invited to come to the altar and offer incense in honor of the former Beatle. This heartfelt offering for someone Jim admired and respected confirmed his decision to move for the sake of practicing in community.
About three decades later, now living in Sacramento, Jim had a spark of imagination—maybe if three local sanghas pooled their resources, they could buy a building—creating a permanent home for Buddhist practice in this region. Now, eight years after moving into Sacramento Dharma Center, we are working to secure its future.
Securing the Legacy
Since its founding, the Dharma Center has truly become a place for “Buddha’s wisdom and compassion in community.” The best way to continue the legacy is to reduce—maybe even eliminate—the mortgage, our biggest single expense. Free of this $3,000 monthly burden, it will be easier to transition to leadership by a younger generation. Newcomers want to serve, but with family and career responsibilities they do not have as much time to devote as the (mostly retired) founders. The move from an all-volunteer staff to a paid staff is the way of the future.
Within Reach–A Debt-Free SDC
Three years ago, we began a fundraising campaign to pay down $150,000 on our mortgage before we had to refinance in 2026. Astoundingly, with two years to go we have already paid down $250,000 of debt and now owe just under $132,000!
We need your help to continue this success. This year, four amazing donors have together offered $1 to $1 matching funds up to $42,000. This sets our campaign goal at $84,000. We humbly ask for your support to meet or go beyond this goal.
No Discouraging Words
Now it can be told—Jim Hare of Valley Streams Zen Sangha was the uncredited interviewer and writer of our prior profiles of Helen Hobart and Barbara Colton. This year, Dell Richards turns the spotlight on him.
Within days of his retirement in 2008, Jim Hare left home for a three-week intensive retreat at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. On returning to Sacramento, he began a series of one-on-one conversations with acquaintances and friends within the Buddhist meditation community. Jim put forth a vision for a shared home for Buddhist practice, and asked, “Do you share this vision? Would you be willing to work on this together?” No one said a discouraging word, and from those conversations the effort to create the Sacramento Dharma Center was born.
Many hands have shared the work since those early days. After a year spent fleshing out the vision and forming a new nonprofit, the next order of business was to begin raising money.
“From the inception of the board in 2010 to 2016, we were always fundraising, which was very difficult,” Jim said. “We had to find the courage to ask people to give money for a vision.” After taking a workshop called “The Soul of Money,” the original board members began making the rounds to Sangha members, asking for pledges of $5,000 from each. Thanks to those initial donors and a few who were inspired to make larger donations, the board ultimately raised nearly half a million dollars to put towards a down payment.
Jim decided to leave the Dharma Center Board in 2015 to concentrate on Zen priest ordination. “I put a lot of time and effort into the beginning of the Dharma Center, but I was becoming more convinced that it was ‘now or never’ to complete the priest ordination that my teachers were encouraging.” Jim received the precepts in 2016 in a ceremony attended by many Dharma friends. He continues to stay involved in SDC committees. Last year, Jim and his wife Karen Hamilton designed and helped tile artist Shelby Kennedy install the new monument sign near the front entrance.
“The stability of the Dharma Center may be taken for granted now. But as our volunteers and donors get older, we need to do everything possible to ensure that stability continues. Paying off the mortgage in May 2026 will greatly contribute to that goal.”
“Compared to the first 25 years — when we had to deal with renting from other churches, synagogues, and temples—it has been such a boon to have a place we can use all the time. We are offering so much more than we could think of doing back then. We have created a refuge for Buddhist practice; a refuge that serves the Sacramento community.”
Owning the Dharma Center outright is within our grasp. With the help of generous donors like you we can pay off the mortgage in 2026 and leave a debt-free Dharma Center to serve a new generation of practitioners and seekers.
Thank you,
For the Dharma Center Board
P.S. Please return your donation in the enclosed envelope (indicate “Mortgage” on the memo line of your check). Or click the Donate button at the top of our homepage: sacdharma.org.
P.P.S. If you are 70½ or older and have a Traditional IRA, you can donate to the Sacramento Dharma Center by making a “Qualified Charitable Distribution” from your IRA, and you won’t have to pay taxes on the money you withdraw. This article explains how to do this: https://www.investopedia.com/taxes/can-i-use-money-my-ira-donate-charity/
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