Donate

“Generosity is the virtue that produces peace”

Thank you for considering a donation to the Vancouver Shambhala Centre. We are a group of volunteers committed to making meditation and the buddhadharma accessible to Vancouverites.

We can accept donations in person, by Interac e-transfer, using our Square payment system, by cash, or by paper cheque.

We can issue Canadian charitable tax receipts for donations of $20 or more. To issue a tax receipt, we need your name and mailing address (for the Canada Revenue Agency), and your email address to send tax receipts. These are issued in late February by our “head office” in Halifax, under Shambhala Canada Society, the umbrella name for all Canadian Shambhala Centres.

We are a volunteer-run and volunteer-funded organization. Meditation instruction and meditation practice are always free. We charge for some programs, but currently this is not enough to cover our mortgage and expenses, so we rely on one-time and regular donors. Like you! As the Vancouver Shambhala Centres owns our new meditation centre (albeit with a substantial mortgage), we also aspire to provide an oasis for meditation and study for future Vancouverites.

 

There are several ways to donate:

Interac e-transfer
Send your e-transfer to [email protected]
For most e-transfers, you won’t need a security question, but if you do, our preferred answer is “Vancouver”

 

Click this ‘donate’ button. Square processes your credit card donation, taking a 3.4% commission.

 

In person at the Vancouver Shambhala Centre
We accept cash and cheques in our donation box.  We accept credit and debit cards using our Square card reader, next to the donation box. Credit cards incur a 2.65% processing fee from Square; debit cards incur a processing fee of $0.07 + 0.75%.

 

Monthly Pre-Authorized Debit donations
Monthly supporters greatly help us plan our ongoing finances. To set up a monthly donation from your bank account, please print this Pre-Authorized Debit form, fill it out and sign it, then send a picture of the completed form and a picture of a void cheque to Geoff, our Finance Dept. at  [email protected]

 

Paper cheques
Please make your cheque to “Vancouver Shambhala Centre”, and drop it off when you vist the Shambhala Centre, or mail it to us at:
Vancouver Shambhala Centre
256 West 7th Avenue, Unit 208
Vancouver, BC  V5Y 1M1
Please ensure that we have your email address for the tax receipt.

 

We email you an invoice
This sounds complicated, but it’s quite simple. We use our Square payment system to email you an invoice.  (An invoice for a donation feels a bit odd, but that’s the way Square works.)  When you receive the emailed invoice, click a link to go to Square’s secure online payment page where you enter your credit or debit card number. We don’t see your credit card info, Square takes 3.4%, and we get a donation!  If you would like this, please email us at at [email protected] with your name and donation amount.

We can also set Square up to issue a monthly invoice that you can choose to automatically pay with a credit card.

 

Volunteer
We would greatly appreciate your donation of time and energy as a volunteer!  Please email us at [email protected] and let us know how you would like to help out. Areas you might consider volunteering include timekeeping meditation sessions, staffing and coordinating programs and events, administration assistant or department heads, ikebana (flower arranging), social media, maintenance, and governance.

 

Meditate with the group
It became clear as we made the transition from pandemic Zoom sessions to in-person meditation just how valuable it is to meditate in a group. Meditating together supports the practice of everyone in the room. Is it peer pressure? Or perhaps magic? Either way, it’s an excellent way to benefit yourself and the community.