History — Vipassana Community Foundation

Below is a brief history of VCF, which was formally launched in 2008.

2007Jack Holder met with Goenkaji in a private meeting in the Teacher’s residence at Dhamma Giri. There was a verbal blessing and instructions from Goenkaji to move forward with establishing the Vipassana Community Foundation (VCF) initially focusing on the Americas.

2008VCF was legally registered as a non-profit in the U.S. with community foundation status.

2009 - 2011VCF spent time organizing its legal, governance, and committee structures.

2012VCF distributed its first two grants to Argentina.

2012 - 2019VCF focused on giving grants to the Americas — distributing 33 grants to 9 countries over this timeframe. Countries included Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, United States, and Venezuela.

2016
To better support the volition of donors, VCF formally launched a Donor Advised Fund service — enabling old Vipassana meditation students to give dana over multiple years and locations.

2017
Based on old Vipassana meditation student dana, VCF began providing support with new center land purchases (one of its services) — in Colorado, Idaho, and Colombia.

VCF also held its first in-person annual board meeting at Dhamma Siri (Texas) and launched a formal strategic planning process & assessment of VCF services.

2018
Based on old Vipassana meditation student dana, VCF helped contribute to the purchase of new-center land purchases in California and Vancouver Island.

VCF held its second in-person annual board meeting at Dhamma Siri (Texas) and continued discussion around what additional ways VCF can be of service in helping the spread of dhamma.

2019
To better support centers, VCF launched The Revolving Loan Fund (for providing low-interest loans to centers); and gave its first loan to the Northwest Vipassana Association.
As part of its evolving strategy, at the end of 2019, the VCF Board decided to begin providing services globally.

2020
Based on its expanded global grantmaking charter, VCF provided grants for the first time to Australia, Burma, India, and Sri Lanka.
In September 2020, VCF also formally launched its first pooled fund — the COVID Relief Fund — to support centers in the Americas during the challenging times of the pandemic.

2021
Based on dana raised via the COVID Relief Fund, VCF provided COVID-relief grants to centers in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America.
VCF also expanded its grantmaking, supporting the launch of a new center in Costa Rica and providing its first grant to Israel.

2022
Based on old student dana volition, VCF began giving dana for the first time to centers and non-centers in Africa.
New countries/centers that VCF supported in 2022 included Austria, Cuba, Morocco, Mozambique, the Philippines, South Africa, Ukraine, and Uganda.
VCF also expanded its relief fund efforts to the Philippines and Sri Lanka to help these two regions hit by natural disasters and economic/political upheaval.