Karuna Trust End of Year Report

The leaves have gone from the trees, and the nights are closing in. This is the time of year when the Karuna Appeals team goes into hibernation in North London. Time to review the Appeals season just past and plan for the coming year.

We’ve had a solid year this year: we’ve run six Appeals, of which five have come in on target and one was only slightly under – we raised a total of £99 929 annually in standing orders. All our Appeals have been well-subscribed and a few have even had a waiting list. Congratulations to all the people, 24 of you, who have fundraised on a Karuna Appeal this year. You have made a significant contribution towards enabling those involved in Karuna-funded projects in South Asia access their rights and fulfil their potential.

Santavajri is moving more into leading Appeals – she led two this year, and will have input into all the Appeals as from 2007. Most of the Appeal teams did a clowning weekend with Jayachitta in 2006, and her input was mentioned as particularly helpful on quite a few feedback forms. Manjudeva led two of the men’s teams in a couple of days of Focussing, which was also very well-received. We look forward to the ongoing involvement of both of them in our 2007 appeals. And a special thank you goes to Manjusvara for his continuing support and input, which is very much appreciated by fundraisers and appeal leaders alike.

When not running the Appeals the team has been engaged in new innovations. Manjuka re-wrote, and Dhammarati designed the fundraising booklet - which is what we give to potential new donors on the doors. Our techno whizz-kid Paul, and Jo, who joined the fundraising team in January, set up an Appeals website with all sorts of information, from profiles of our regular trainers to sound bites from past fundraisers. Jo and Santavajri led a very successful experiential workshop at the London FWBO Centre exploring communication as spiritual practice and demystifying what actually happens on Karuna Appeals! And now Manjuka is in the process of helping edit the latest Karuna film. It’s called “On the Threshold”, and will be released in January 2007. For dates of workshops and film viewings at a centre near you log on to our website.

More developments are afoot in 2007, with two men joining the Appeals team in February. We plan to lead eight appeals during the course of the year: four for women, three for men, and one for the Dharmaduta students as part of their two-year course. Here are the Appeal dates for next year:

Men
17th March ~ 28th April, Edinburgh
10th June ~ 21st July, London
9th Sept ~ 20th Oct, Newcastle

Women
25th March ~ 5th May, Leeds
10th June ~ 21st July, London
9th Sept ~ 20th Oct, Bristol

- Santavajri