"If You Break Ground, They Will Give"

October - November - December 2007 Newsletter

Jai Seecharran is willing to take reasonable risks.

After a brief career as a high school science teacher, he took his chances as a motel owner, landlord, Baskin Robbins and Karmelkorn franchisee, and with a few other businesses.

He feels that the same entrepreneurial spirit that starts new businesses funds new temples. "You have to break ground if you hope to raise money," he says. "Unless people see something happening, they will not be inspired to give."

He moved to the United States from coastal Guyana when he was eighteen to further his education. Both in Iowa, where he spent most of his adult life, and in Arizona, where he retired a few years ago to be with family, he saw Hindu immigrants find each other so they could express their faith together.

"The group usually starts in a home and then moves to an apartment basement," he said of the temporary Hindu temples that have sprung up throughout the country over the years. "In Ames, Iowa, we started with five or six families in a home and then moved to an apartment basement as our group grew. Our temple on Sunday morning might have been a party room on Saturday night."

The Iowa devotees talked about building a permanent temple for years, he said. But substantial contributions began to flow only after the groundbreaking.

When visiting his daughter in Scottsdale in the late 1990s, he heard local Hindus talking about building their own temple. "They asked me how we raised the money for the Iowa temple, how much we needed initially, what our strategy was," he recalled. "I told them to have members of the temple board make loans, to borrow from the bank, and to start work. Others would contribute once the project was under way."

He said that Bharatiya Ekta Mandir of Arizona, a Hindu and Jain Temple in Phoenix, started construction in September 2006. Phase 1 will be finished in August 2007, at a cost of $5 million. Indianization of the 12,000-square-foot temple will follow later, he added.

Moving forward at that pace entails risk, but Jai feels the risk is worth taking. A permanent temple, he says, both expresses and creates community. "The presence of the temple attracts other Hindus," he said. He recollected hearing from a Hindu doctor from Canada asking what Iowa was like and where the local temple was. "For people relocating to a new community, this is critical. A permanent temple may be the determining reason they choose a community. But to get it built, someone has to stick his neck out."

Jai applied that same principle in December of 2006 to the long-range future of the Bharatiya Ekta Mandir of Arizona by creating a permanent fund (#68) at the Hindu Heritage Endowment with a gift of appreciated stock. His gift bypassed the capital gain on the stock and generated an income tax deduction based on the stock's full market value. Having broken the ice with an established gift, he hopes others will give to the fund, either during their life or through a bequest. The fund is meant as a long-term source of reliable income for the temple. As with creating a temple, someone had to take the first step. Please visit the temple at www.ektamandir.org and make a donation to the fund at www.hheonline.org/donate.shtml.

April to June Endowment Contributions

MISSION STATEMENT

Hindu Heritage Endowment is a publicly supported, charitable organization recognized as tax exempt by the IRS on April 22, 1994. Employer ID 99-0308924. Founded by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, its philanthropic mission is to provide secure, professionally managed financial support for institutions and religious leaders of all lineages of Sanatana Dharma.

PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS

Halbert/Hargrove, Investment Counsel; Sonoda & Isara, LLP, CPA. HHE is a member of the Council on Foundations, an association of more than 2,000 foundations which interprets relevant law and management and investment principles, and of the National Committee on Planned Giving, the voice and professional resource for the gift planning community.

I want to participate. Where should I Send My Donation?

You may send your gift to an existing fund, create a new Endowment or request information through the address below.

Donations may be made online at www.hheonline.org or use the HHE tear-out card in the HINDUISM TODAY magazine to join our family of benefactors who are Strengthening Hinduism Worldwide. Thank you.