Key Staff and Departments of International Office
FPMT Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
The President and CEO is appointed by the Board after consultation with the Spiritual Director, and reports to the Board. The CEO's main responsibilities are to:
- Ensure that the organization achieves its mission, set forth by the Board as a long range strategy towards which it should make consistent progress
- Provide leadership in developing programs with the department heads and staff, assuring that the plans and policies authorized by the Board and Spiritual Director are carried out
- Develop, in conjunction with the staff, a budget which will be submitted to the Board for approval; see that the organization operates within the budget guidelines
- Assisting with communications to and from Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Roger Kunsang
- Organizing all aspects of personal and center-related travel arrangements for Rinpoche and Ven Roger, including flights, visas and health insurance. Working closely with the Center Services Director when the travel is center- related.
- Keeping track of all Rinpoche’s personal advice to students, and sending it out where appropriate.
- Keeping track of Rinpoche's Dharma advice, center-related advice and advice for the organization, working closely with the other departments of International Office, especially the Education Services and Center Services departments, to ensure it is archived, accessible and available whenever necessary.
- Managing all Rinpoche’s personal projects not managed by International Office including Rinpoche’s personal finances. This includes taking care of benefactors.
Executive Assistant to the CEO
The Executive Assistant to the CEO is appointed by the CEO and works intimately with all the departments of FPMT International Office. The main objective of this position is to help in whatever capacity with the workload of Ven. Roger Kunsang (secretary to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and CEO of FPMT Inc). This entails:
Center Services Department
The Center Services Department maintains the flow of communication within the Foundation and is responsible for supporting staff in the organization in their service to the Spiritual Director and to sentient beings in all areas except the center's education program. Specifically, the Center Services Department:
- Keeps information flowing between centers, projects, services and the Spiritual Director, the Board of FPMT Inc, regional and national coordinators and team members at International Office;
- Informs centers, projects and services of new advice from the Spiritual Director;
- Archives advice of the Spiritual Director to the organization;
- Coordinates and advises on the Spiritual Director's schedule and visits to centers, projects and services
- Facilitates the Spiritual Director's advice on the appointment of certain center, project and service staff members;
- Helps centers to appoint resident teachers and interpreters;
- Assists teachers, directors and spiritual program coordinators with orientation to their new role
- Helps to identify and support FPMT teachers;
- Communicates FPMT policy to centers, and help them to understand and abide by it;
- Prepares additions to and revisions of the FPMT Handbook with the help of the Board and others as appropriate;
- Develops requested and needed center development guidelines;
- Coordinates the organization of CPMT meetings.
Education Services Department
The Education Services Department manages the development and implementation of FPMT standard program curriculum and study/practice materials.
- Creates new program curriculum as needed by centers in conjunction with senior teachers
- Supports existing curriculum with guidelines, translations, study materials, exams, readings, and completion certificates
- Creates certification criteria for all FPMT standard programs
- Manages the translation of various texts recommended by the Spiritual Director
- Coordinates FPMT Translation and Editorial team in English, and translation coordinators in other languages
- Creates practice texts which complement programs, support student needs, and disseminate the Spiritual Director's advice
- Manages the production of prayer and practice materials for distribution via the Foundation Store
- Develops and maintains a library of all standard FPMT prayers and practice materials
- Tracks the status of education initiatives that have arisen from FPMT meetings and conferences
- Provides centers with the specific text and practice materials needed for when Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches at that center
- Creates and hosts FPMT Service Trainings for FPMT staff and students
Development Department
The Development Department generates sustainable revenue for International Office operations, develops income-generating activities to support Lama Zopa Rinpoche's projects, and aligns the revenue generation of International Office with its Dharma principles, vision and mission. To this end, promoting organizational accountability, providing careful stewardship of donors and funds, and creating timely, effective communication methods are components of their work to establish long-term financial stability. The Development Department manages all fundraising campaigns and the Friends of FPMT program.
Finance & Administration Department
The Director of Finance is currently also the Chief Financial Officer of FPMT Inc.
The Finance and Administration Department:
- Manages and co-ordinates all aspects of the financial and management accounting functions of FPMT Inc, to ensure compliance with Federal & State regulations and accounting standards.
- Supervises the charge and custody of all funds of FPMT Inc and is responsible for keeping true and correct accounts of all financial transactions of the corporation including the Foundation restricted funds.
- Works with the auditors in the preparation of the certification of FPMT Inc accounts.
- Assists the CEO and management team to develop and evaluate strategic business plans, prepare and manage budgets, monitor financial results, review and ensure the smooth functioning of the financial/operational procedures.
- Financial reporting for internal and external stakeholders including preparation of monthly financial reports for all project and fund directors and management of external audit and banking relationship interactions.
- Establishes financial practices and procedure and their associated business policies.
- Manages and supervises Administrative and Human Resource functions of International Office including insurances, corporate exemptions, regulations and employee benefits.
Foundation Store
The FPMT Foundation Store provides a vast selection of Buddhist study materials including Prayers & Practices, Homestudy Programs, Dharma Materials for Children, and other FPMT Education Services resources. The main motivation of the Foundation Store is to make the Dharma available in order to benefit sentient beings.
Proceeds from sales through the Foundation Store are carefully categorized and calculated to ensure that income from Dharma items is used to make more Dharma available and to further the charitable mission and projects of FPMT Inc. We carefully follow Buddhist principles for the use of Dharma income and any payments for salaries or food expenses are excluded when calculating the net Dharma proceeds from the Foundation Store.
Mandala Publications
Two FPMT publications fall under the umbrella of Mandala Publications:
-A quarterly print magazine, Mandala
-A quarterly electronic magazine, the Mandala e-zine
Mandala arose as a newsmagazine in the 1980s in response to the growth of the FPMT family and has transformed over the years into its current form, a quarterly glossy magazine. The Mandala e-zine debuted in November 2008 exclusively for members of the Friends of FPMT Program which supports the programs and services of FPMT's International Office.
Mandala Publications offers articles which present the priceless lineage of teachings offered in the FPMT and how those teachings can be put into practice, for individual practitioners, for centers, projects and services and for the global community. Mandala Publications also seeks to keep the FPMT family connected with each other, informed on the activities of FPMT's Spiritual Director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and engaged with the legacy of its founder, Lama Yeshe.