OMEGA INSTITUTE FOR HOLISTIC STUDIES
Awakening the best in the human spirit
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Omega Center for Sustainable Living
The Omega Center for Sustainable Living (OCSL) demonstrates and teaches what is possible through regenerative thinking and design. Our award-winning building, Eco-Machine, community organizing, and innovative educational programs offer visitors and students a path toward a sustainable, just, resilient, and regenerative future. We envision a world where all people can awaken their full human potential while caring for each other and the Earth.
Omega Women's Leadership Center
The Omega Women’s Leadership Center (OWLC) is a hub for catalyzing a new way of envisioning women's leadership. The OWLC offers an interdisciplinary leadership curriculum to support personal and professional development throughout the lifespan—for aspiring leaders who want to hone skills and deepen self-understanding; and for established leaders who are looking to make a change, give back, and impact the world.
Veterans, Trauma, and Resilience
For more than 25 years, Omega has offered hope and healing to veterans and their families. We provide retreats for veterans and training opportunities for health-care professionals that focus on resilience, reintegration, and complementary and alternative medicine treatments. These programs and practices create a sense of connection, provide new skills and resilience tools, and give veterans a place to feel they fully belong.
Where we work
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
At its core, Omega is a resource for personal development and working to expand individual and social awareness. Omega inspires a deeper connection to self and to global community through:
• Creation and delivery of personal and social development programs
• Commitment to modeling a sustainable nonprofit educational organization
• Use of Omega's voice and resources to be a transformative force that brings focus, strength, and an integrated global awareness to personal and social change
People the world over carry within them a longing for well-being, creativity, connection, and a sense of purpose. At all stages of life, we want to develop the talents and understanding we need to live well, to rise to our challenges, and to be valuable members of society. We want to awaken our full human potential. This is at the core of Omega’s vision: educating people to develop and use the fullness of their intelligence—body, mind, heart, and spirit. We believe that the answers to our most stubborn problems—as individuals and as a global community—will be found in the fullness of our human potential: our brains and our bodies, our feeling hearts and our intuitive souls, our masculine and feminine qualities, our earthbound wisdom and our eternal questing natures.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Omega is expanding its reach and impact by building on its successful model of social entrepreneurship, being highly adaptive to marketing and media opportunities of all forms, developing new strategic partnerships, and increasing its fundraising capacity. Elements of this strategy include strengthening Omega’s ability to deliver core programs; raising Omega’s public profile as a thought leader; reaching a larger and more diverse audience both on- and off-campus through digital channels; and undertaking creative and effective initiatives.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Omega is a premiere travel and tourism destination and a nationally recognized leader within the health & wellness/lifelong learning marketplace, annually attracting more than 23,000 visitors to workshops, conferences, and retreats in Rhinebeck, New York and other locations. About one-third of our guests are from New York State, with the remainder visiting from around the nation and internationally. Omega’s digital reach includes nearly 2 million visitors to www.eOmega.org, more than 100,000 subscribers to our eNews, and close to 120,000 followers on social media.
Our programs – typically numbering over 350 per year and featuring some 500 of the country’s most accomplished faculty – are grouped in six Omega Learning Paths: Body, Mind & Spirit; Health & Healing; Creative Expression; Relationships & Family; Leadership & Community; and Sustainable Living. To deliver these programs Omega has a Core Staff of 75 salaried employees, who work year-round in a variety of managerial and administrative roles. Each year when Omega is open to guests from April through October, we welcome Seasonal Staff and Seasonal Service Corps Members to engage in the concept of compassionate service. They help support the daily operation of the campus while being fully immersed in our learning community.
The annual economic impact of Omega Institute on the Mid-Hudson Region of New York State includes 474 jobs in the region, $8.7 million in earnings, and $1.6 million in tax revenue. Over the past ten years, the Cumulative Economic Impact of Omega Institute on the region includes $99 million in earnings, $332 million in sales, and $18 million in tax revenue. In addition to these fiscal benefits, Omega provides Mid-Hudson Region residents and visitors with valuable opportunities for life-long learning, supports community building within the region, and provides resources to nonprofits to improve their ability to serve.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Evidence of our effective strategies include annually strengthening Omega’s ability to deliver core programs; raising Omega’s public profile as a thought leader; reaching a larger and more diverse audience both on- and off-campus through digital channels; and undertaking creative and effective initiatives like the following:
Omega Center for Sustainable Living (OCSL): Omega created the OCSL as an environmental education center and natural water reclamation facility built to meet the highest standards currently available in sustainable architecture. It is the first green building in America to achieve both LEED® Platinum and Living Building Challenge™ certification. Already attracting thousands of visitors from around the world, including architects, government officials, and educators, the OCSL’s evolving program emphasis illuminates an approach to solving problems that considers the connections between society, nature, and individuals in creating solutions. OCSL programs have included three major fall conferences, which in 2013 featured former President Bill Clinton among others, an immersive Ecological Literacy Program, and an emerging curriculum in progress with the country’s most acclaimed sustainability experts.
Omega Women’s Leadership Center (OWLC): The OWLC is a growing women's leadership hub offering conferences, retreats, workshops, residencies, and scholarship opportunities. The OWLC is catalyzing a new way of envisioning women's leadership by advancing an integrated and holistic approach to personal growth, leadership development, and social change. The OWLC convenes, inspires, and trains women to envision new possibilities, build alliances, develop inner spiritual strength, and acquire leadership competencies to take skillful action in the world in support of a culture of equality and care. OWLC programs are designed to be inclusive of in-person on campus modules, as well as Digital Omega online learning modules, which complement the following programs: Women & Power Retreat, Women’s Leadership Learning Modules and Certificate Program; Women Serving Women Summit; Juno Women’s Leadership Residency; and Leadership Learning Lab.
Service Week: In 2014, this program celebrated its 10th anniversary milestone of reaching 4,000+ dedicated staff serving 300 nonprofits that impact millions. We are committed to helping preserve the nonprofit safety net which is threatened by continual underfunding and increased need. Each year we provide retreats to nonprofit peers, allowing them to attend Service Week, a one of a kind, free strategic planning and networking retreat on our Rhinebeck campus.
Veterans: Omega first offered a retreat for veterans in 1990 and since 2009 has offered fully-underwritten programs for veterans and their families suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as well as powerful and unique conferences addressing mind-body methods for treating current and former military personnel suffering from PTSD.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
OMEGA INSTITUTE FOR HOLISTIC STUDIES
Board of directorsas of 03/04/2024
Mrs. Manuela Roosevelt
Patty Goodwin
Sheryl Lamb
Elizabeth Lesser
Jamia Wilson
Manuela Roosevelt
Neonu Jewell
Artemio Guerra
Tobias Esch
Devi Brown
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Not applicable
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as: