PLATINUM2024

Institute for Zen Leadership

Lead the Way

aka IZL   |   Madison, WI   |  https://zenleader.global/

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Institute for Zen Leadership

EIN: 45-4956464


Mission

The purpose of the Institute for Zen Leadership (IZL) is to equip a critical mass of leaders with Zen practices and embodied leadership skills so that they lead from one-withness as fearless, creative, healing forces of nature. Our programs and products combine the science of resonance, physical practices from Zen, connection with nature, and the most essential leadership skills needed today. Among our tools is the mind-body personality assessment, FEBI, which links energetic patterns in the nervous system with everyday behaviors and essential modes of leadership. Our mission is to spread and apply these skillful means as part of a global healing movement.

Ruling year info

2014

President

Ms Ginny Jiko Whitelaw

Main address

2540 E Mifflin St

Madison, WI 53704 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

45-4956464

Subject area info

Leadership development

Population served info

Adults

Activists

Caregivers

Buddhists

NTEE code info

Leadership Development (W70)

Adult, Continuing Education (B60)

Management & Technical Assistance (X02)

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

We believe humanity is at a critical juncture, facing existential threats from climate change, collapsing biodiversity, AI and their attendant conflicts. Current extractive business models and ways of living are not aligned with the laws of nature and present generations are facing the consequences. Our purpose at IZL is to equip a critical mass of leaders with Zen practices and embodied leadership skills so that they lead from one-withness as fearless, creative, healing forces of nature. We are committed to being part a global healing movement, developing wise, resilient leaders who can guide humanity through this time of reckoning.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Zen Leader

The Zen Leader programs supercharge leaders to face the critical work of our time from deeply embodied, connected consciousness, giving them the ability to care for people and the planet with greater wisdom, success, and energy. IZL programs use Zen training and the applied “flips” of The Zen Leader (book by IZL founder Ginny Whitelaw), to enable more authentic and agile leadership. Participants come with a leadership challenge and leave with not only a different approach, but a different "self" approaching it.

Graduates of Zen Leader 1 are eligible to continue their training in the Zen Leader series with ZL2 and ZL3, where they will experience facing down their fears and transforming their leadership. Who should attend: Leaders and entrepreneurs in business and non-profits who aspire to make a difference and crack open their greatest potential.

Population(s) Served
Adults
Activists
Buddhists

Our HEAL programs bring together the tools of physical Zen training and the applied “flips” of The Zen Leader, with healthcare expertise and a focus on the issues facing healthcare practitioners/leaders. These programs have been accredited by the WI Medical Society to provide Continuing Medical Education credits. Graduates of the HEAL program are eligible to continue their training in HEAL2, HEAL3, and other advanced programs. Who should attend: practitioner/leaders in healthcare, including physicians, nurses and other healthcare providers who want to sustainably thrive and be a force for positive change in their patients, practices and systems.

Population(s) Served
Caregivers

Where we work

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of students who receive scholarship funds and/or tuition assistance

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adults, Low-income people, Activists, Self-employed people

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Context Notes

We hope that anyone who wishes to participate in a Zen Leader, HEAL or FEBI Program may do so. To that end we both price affordably and support students with scholarships.

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

We accomplish our mission through 4 primary strategic streams, listed below, with our primary goals for 2024
1. Fortifying Transformative Programs and Products - strengthen our core teachings and instructor pool
1a. Update existing programs and increase participation and revenue.
1b. Expand use of products (e.g., FEBI, Resonate) through new workshops, on-demand programs or learning resources, and promotion of coaching resources.
1c. Strengthen the instructor pool with more opportunities to teach and development of instructor materials.

2. Cultivating Healing Community - Give people ways to stay connected, keep learning and foster aspirations
2a. Strengthen sense of belonging and reciprocity through shared learning and mutual support.
2b. Provide regular opportunities for community connection and engagement.
2c. Proactively seek out volunteers to engage in social media and other support.

3. Cultivating Generative Partnerships - Build resonance toward a global healing movement with like-hearted organizations
3a. Pilot selective new courses or programs with partners.
3b. Host annual global outreach event to strengthen partnerships, amplify shared goals, expand reach, and attract funding sources.
3c. Support partners in their events and offer our teachings.

4. Working Smart, Integrating Technology in a Healthy Organization
4a. Update the website to increase traffic and better track calls to action and other analytics.
4b. Structure and Semi-automate repetitive operations; uplevel use of technology to build new smart processes.
4c. Maintain healthy rhythm of working and financial health of the organization.

Our fourfold strategy is further described below:

1. Fortifying transformative programs and products
- We offer open and custom programs in Zen Leadership for leaders at all levels. For practitioners/leaders in healthcare, we offer CME-accredited HEAL (i.e., Healthy Embodied Agile Leadership) programs to help them become a resilient, healing force for their patients, practices and systems.
- We offer certification pathways to train the next generation of Zen leadership instructors and coaches, as well as certify coaches and trainers in the mind-body personality instrument, FEBI. We provide coaching services to accompany people on their Zen Leadership journey or as a standalone offering.
- We offer the mind-body personality instrument, FEBI, as well as FEBI coaching and an on-demand FEBI video debrief
- We fortify these transformative programs through an annual update of materials/curriculum, an annual Master Class for instructors and coaches, expanding reach and enrollment in the core programs, expanding use of FEBI in new programs, and developing on-demand resources and programs (e.g., Resonate).

2. Cultivating Healing Community
- We foster regular ways for our community of program graduates to stay connected and grow in their capacity as leaders, including an annual Master Class and summit, monthly alumni-led gatherings/teachings, and daily meditation practice with our sister organization, Chosei Zen.
- We foster the aspirations of our graduates, especially those who wish to teach Zen Leadership or FEBI-based programs with us or own their own. We further engage our community in volunteer capacities, such as helping us with social media, newsletters, organizing events, and fundraising.

3. Cultivating Generative Partnerships
- We host an annual summit with like-hearted partners, which expands and strengthens our partnerships, amplifies shared goals, expands our reach, and potentially attracts new funding sources. In 2023, we hosted a leadership summit for healing people, planet and the future called One Earth, One Health, One With. The 2024 summit furthers and focuses this theme through: Living and Leading with Deep Resilience.
We are piloting selective new courses or programs with partners.
- We expand our program offerings through partners and support partners in their events by offering our teachings.

4. Working Smart, Integrating Technology in a Healthy Organization
- We are increasingly integrating technology to structure, automate and semi-automate repetitive operations, build smart new smart processes (e.g., sales pipeline) and guide regular refreshes of our website.
- We maintain a healthy annual rhythm of working, as well as financial health, with new programs and special events (e.g., summit) in the first half of the year, our core curriculum in the second half, and entry programs and products year round.

Our founder and CEO, Ginny Whitelaw Roshi, is a thought leader in mindful, embodied leadership and the chief instructor guiding our programs. Working with her to deliver our capabilities is a full-time Operations Manager, a core team of volunteers, a few paid contractors, a faculty of about 15 instructors (many of whom also donate their time), and a broader community of FEBI coaches and volunteers. Supporting the organization is a highly engaged Board of Directors including award-winning physicians, entrepreneurs, Zen teachers, and change agents.

Our sister organization, Chosei Zen, expands our capability by providing the primary training center we have used for our in-person programs, the Spring Green Dojo in Wisconsin. It also includes a training center in Madison and a Virtual Dojo for online training. By working closely with Chosei Zen, we're able to offer ongoing, unparalleled training in Zen for our graduates and instructors.

Since our founding in 2012, we've largely limited our multi-day programs to cohorts of 10-15 people in order to create an intimate program container. Thus, the number of alumni is still relatively small, around 600, with about 100 being added each year. We started with in-person programs at the Spring Green Dojo in Wisconsin, and expanded to other venues, including some in Europe in 2014 and Asia in 2015. Additionally, we've reached thousands of people through shorter programs, conferences, webinars, custom corporate programs, and our own hosted summits. In 2023, our One Earth, One Health, One With summit attracted more than 1500 people. It also brought together more than 50 speakers and teachers, and more than a dozen collaborating organizations, many of whom have continued to be among our generative partnerships.

Since 2020, when the global pandemic moved all of our programs online, we've learned how to transmit our uniquely physical training using online platforms. We still do selective programs in person, but our entire curriculum is now offered online, globally. We've also linked into programming from our sister organization, Chosei Zen, which offers online meditation every 12 hours, as well as other training in Zen.

In 2023, our organization made significant progress in helping more people know of us and what we offer. Some metrics of this progress include more than a 10x increase in our social media postings and a nearly 50% increase in followers across every channel we post in.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We shared information about our current feedback practices.
  • 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, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

    We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, 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, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback

Financials

Institute for Zen Leadership
Fiscal year: Jan 01 - Dec 31

Revenue vs. expenses:  breakdown

SOURCE: IRS Form 990 info
NET GAIN/LOSS:    in 
Note: When component data are not available, the graph displays the total Revenue and/or Expense values.

Liquidity in 2023 info

SOURCE: IRS Form 990

21.04

Average of 17.76 over 7 years

Months of cash in 2023 info

SOURCE: IRS Form 990

7.8

Average of 6.2 over 7 years

Fringe rate in 2023 info

SOURCE: IRS Form 990

9%

Average of 6% over 7 years

Funding sources info

Source: IRS Form 990

Assets & liabilities info

Source: IRS Form 990

Financial data

SOURCE: IRS Form 990

Institute for Zen Leadership

Revenue & expenses

Fiscal Year: Jan 01 - Dec 31

SOURCE: IRS Form 990 info

Fiscal year ending: cloud_download Download Data

Institute for Zen Leadership

Balance sheet

Fiscal Year: Jan 01 - Dec 31

SOURCE: IRS Form 990 info

The balance sheet gives a snapshot of the financial health of an organization at a particular point in time. An organization's total assets should generally exceed its total liabilities, or it cannot survive long, but the types of assets and liabilities must also be considered. For instance, an organization's current assets (cash, receivables, securities, etc.) should be sufficient to cover its current liabilities (payables, deferred revenue, current year loan, and note payments). Otherwise, the organization may face solvency problems. On the other hand, an organization whose cash and equivalents greatly exceed its current liabilities might not be putting its money to best use.

Fiscal year ending: cloud_download Download Data

Institute for Zen Leadership

Financial trends analysis Glossary & formula definitions

Fiscal Year: Jan 01 - Dec 31

SOURCE: IRS Form 990 info

This snapshot of Institute for Zen Leadership’s financial trends applies Nonprofit Finance Fund® analysis to data hosted by GuideStar. While it highlights the data that matter most, remember that context is key – numbers only tell part of any story.

Created in partnership with

Business model indicators

Profitability info 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Unrestricted surplus (deficit) before depreciation $22,927 -$15,299 -$67,523 $49,320 $10,080
As % of expenses 13.7% -6.7% -30.3% 20.0% 5.4%
Unrestricted surplus (deficit) after depreciation $22,927 -$15,299 -$67,523 $49,320 $10,080
As % of expenses 13.7% -6.7% -30.3% 20.0% 5.4%
Revenue composition info
Total revenue (unrestricted & restricted) $190,138 $213,162 $155,271 $308,140 $168,728
Total revenue, % change over prior year -33.5% 12.1% -27.2% 98.5% -45.2%
Program services revenue 52.3% 48.0% 51.2% 37.1% 59.8%
Membership dues 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Investment income 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Government grants 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
All other grants and contributions 36.2% 37.3% 36.8% 55.8% 40.6%
Other revenue 11.5% 14.6% 12.0% 7.1% -0.5%
Expense composition info
Total expenses before depreciation $167,211 $227,388 $222,794 $247,023 $185,901
Total expenses, % change over prior year -25.6% 36.0% -2.0% 10.9% -24.7%
Personnel 32.4% 66.6% 70.4% 62.1% 72.1%
Professional fees 13.9% 7.2% 6.7% 21.7% 5.8%
Occupancy 0.0% 1.2% 1.7% 1.6% 0.0%
Interest 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0%
Pass-through 9.0% 11.0% 9.0% 2.4% 8.3%
All other expenses 44.7% 14.1% 12.3% 12.0% 13.7%
Full cost components (estimated) info 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Total expenses (after depreciation) $167,211 $227,388 $222,794 $247,023 $185,901
One month of savings $13,934 $18,949 $18,566 $20,585 $15,492
Debt principal payment $0 $0 $0 $26,665 $0
Fixed asset additions $1,073 $0 $0 $0 $0
Total full costs (estimated) $182,218 $246,337 $241,360 $294,273 $201,393

Capital structure indicators

Liquidity info 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Months of cash 10.5 8.6 4.1 6.7 7.8
Months of cash and investments 10.5 8.6 4.1 6.7 7.8
Months of estimated liquid unrestricted net assets 10.0 6.6 3.1 5.2 7.5
Balance sheet composition info 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Cash $145,753 $162,273 $75,905 $137,836 $120,406
Investments $0 $0 $0 $0 $0
Receivables $3,548 $0 $14,875 $4,593 $1,870
Gross land, buildings, equipment (LBE) $1,073 $1,073 $0 $0 $0
Accumulated depreciation (as a % of LBE) 0.0% 100.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Liabilities (as a % of assets) 7.0% 23.2% 38.1% 5.4% 4.8%
Unrestricted net assets $0 $124,587 $57,064 $106,384 $116,464
Temporarily restricted net assets N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Permanently restricted net assets N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Total restricted net assets $0 $0 $0 $28,330 $0
Total net assets $139,886 $124,587 $57,064 $134,714 $116,464

Key data checks

Key data checks info 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Material data errors No No No No No

Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

Documents
Form 1023/1024 is not available for this organization

President

Ms Ginny Jiko Whitelaw

Dr. Ginny Jiko Whitelaw is an 86th generation Zen master and founder of the Institute for Zen Leadership. For more than 25 years, she's combined a rich scientific background, senior leadership experience, and mind-body practices in developing whole leaders. She is the author of 4 books, including The Zen Leader and the award-winning, Resonate, and co-developed FEBI, a unique personality test linking mind, body, and behaviors. She has taught leadership programs in non-profits, universities, healthcare systems, and top global companies, including Novartis, Merck, Dell, Bank of America, and Ascensus Health. Formerly a senior leader at NASA, she led the integration of the Space Station Program and was awarded NASA's Exceptional Service Medal. She holds a doctorate in biophysics, degrees in physics and philosophy, and a 5th degree black belt in Aikido. She is a regular contributor to Forbes.com in leadership strategy.

Number of employees

Source: IRS Form 990

Institute for Zen Leadership

Officers, directors, trustees, and key employees

SOURCE: IRS Form 990

Compensation
Other
Related
Show data for fiscal year
Compensation data
Download up to 5 most recent years of officer and director compensation data for this organization

There are no highest paid employees recorded for this organization.

Institute for Zen Leadership

Board of directors
as of 06/21/2024
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board of directors data
Download the most recent year of board of directors data for this organization
Board chair

Ms Kate Watters

Crude Accountability

Term: 2022 - 2025

Gordon Greene

International Zen Dojo Wisconsin

Ginny Whitelaw

Institute for Zen Leadership

Cristina Nakano

Kristi Crymes

CoxHealth Family Medicine Residency

Cynthia Haq

UC Irvine

Bob Caron

Deloitte

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • 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
  • 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

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 1/2/2024

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:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Female, Not transgender
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or Straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

Transgender Identity

Sexual orientation

Disability

No data

Equity strategies

Last updated: 12/28/2023

GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more

Data
  • We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
Policies and processes
  • We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
  • We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
There are no contractors recorded for this organization.

Professional fundraisers

Fiscal year ending

SOURCE: IRS Form 990 Schedule G

Solicitation activities
Gross receipts from fundraising
Retained by organization
Paid to fundraiser