Registration fees help cover the significant costs of our offerings. Because we have no physical building, it may seem like we have no costs. This is not so. While we also depend the practice of dana or generosity, the truth is that, like many convert-Dharma institutions, we lack the funding to provide our programs based on dana alone.
Registration fees are based on two sliding scales on top of which members of registered groups receive a discount. Scholarships are also available.
Sliding Scales
We invite you to consider your ability to pay as a function of your geographic and social location as well as other circumstances. These drive your relative financial standing in a global context*. In making your selection between high, medium, and low registration fees, please consider:
- historical discrimination and disenfranchisement faced by your peoples;
- your financial wealth (do you have retirement savings?);
- your access to income and financial wealth, both current and anticipated (how easily could you earn more income compared to other people in your country and in the world? do you expect to receive an inheritance?);
- people counting on your financial livelihood including dependents and community members;
- and the socio-economic conditions of your locale (relative to other places in your country and in the world).
* We are grateful to the folks at Network Weaver for this framework.
Group Discounts
While groups aren’t for everyone, we suggest that your course experience will be improved if you are part of a group, whether online or in-person. Fees are reduced for group members, and this discount is applied to whichever fee you choose from the sliding scale.
Scholarships
We are committed to ensuring that no one turned away from our programs due to real financial constraints. Each of our programs has either a scholarship application, or an invitation to email us to request free registration (see the program’s landing page for details). We are grateful to our supporters who fund scholarships for others and to our applicants for generously sharing their situation with us.