I’ve been getting emails for about a year now from an organization calling themselves Friends of the BBT. They even mail me stuff.
Their emails and mailouts seem pretty legit and look great. On their website, it says that their mission is to “provide targeted funding to enhance and expand the work of the BBT and build a solid foundation for its future.”
And that sounds great to me. Keeping Prabhupada’s books in print is a wonderful idea. The Friends of the BBT solicit donations from devotees. Their donations page (called “Participate”) urges devotees to give so that you, the giver, “can directly connect with the mission of the BBT to fulfill your own interests in the essential work of spreading Krishna consciousness.”
On the Friends of the BBT’s front page, they explain a few of their other missions, a sanskrit school to translate all the previous acarya’s books that Prabhupada wanted to be translated,1 an art seminar and a separate fund raising drive for the Archives.
Within the Archives article, it promises “100% of all contributions will be forwarded to the Bhaktivedanta Archives account.” Ok, fine. But if it promises that for the Archives, why doesn’t it promise that for the rest of the donated money?
For me, this raises a huge red flag. There are several reasons and this might get complicated.
The BBT exists to print and keep in print Srila Prabhupada’s books. Since Srila Prabhupada departed, other devotee’s books have been printed. I assume that they are getting paid and that the profits of their books are split between the BBT and the author.
Perhaps the BBT is top-heavy and the Friends of the BBT needed to be created to help pay for printing. Maybe the BBT was in danger of going out of business and the Friends of the BBT have stepped in to donate money to the BBT to keep it afloat.
My first problem with this is where is the money going? If I were to donate $100 to Friends of the BBT, how much of that would actually go to the BBT? How much of it would pay the salaries of the people who front Friends of the BBT? And after their cut is skimmed off the top, how much of what is left of that $100 would go to printing Srila Prabhupada’s books and how much would go to the salaries of the people in charge of the BBT? Of the $100 that I donated, how much of it would allow me to “directly connect with the mission of the BBT to fulfill your own interests in the essential work of spreading Krishna consciousness.”?
Secondly, the BBT was created by Srila Prabhupada to print and reprint his books. While he was on the planet, only his books were printed. No other devotees published books under the BBT. Srila Prabhupada encouraged his disciples to write and even publish their own books2, but would these have been published by the BBT?
By only printing Srila Prabhupada’s books, this possible lack of money could be solved. All of these books are written and the copyrights are maintained by the BBT. No royalties payments go to the author (Srila Prabhupada). The BBT keeps 100% of the profits, putting them into keeping the books in print.
But even that, as it stands now, wouldn’t be enough. Lastly, and this is the big one: salaries.
People who are working at the BBT are receiving salaries. I guess that wouldn’t be too big of a deal, financially speaking. If the people who worked there weren’t taking in too much money for their own, the business of BBT could still go on, though it would probably be difficult to publish only the books of Srila Prabhupada and pay everybody.
But even that isn’t exactly how it’s supposed to be.
In both 1975 and 1977, Srila Prabhupada stated that devotees who work for the BBT should not receive salaries. The BBT funds are meant for printing and the construction of temples. “Not for salaries.” Srila Prabhupada wanted to know why “so many people been appointed without my permission.” Stating, “We do not want any salaried men.” He concluded this letter to Radha Ballabha by saying “This extravagancy must be stopped immediately.”
Srila Prabhupad was very serious about this.
In 1975, he said in a letter to Kirtiraja, “And definitely, the BBT cannot pay any salary to anybody.” However, in April of 1977, the BBT was having a problem with Hayagriva “doing nothing and taking money” (Srila Prabhupada’s words). Tamala Krishna explained that Hayagriva’s salary had been stopped.
Two weeks later, Srila Prabhuapda, in a conversation with Tamala Krishna again reiterated, “…in our BBT it is clearly written that ‘Fifty percent for printing book, fifty percent for…[building temples]‘3 So you cannot violate this. Those who can give voluntary service, ‘Welcome.’ Otherwise we don’t require. At least they should not be given any salary. That is very bad. This is against principle.”
So here’s my revolutionary idea. Go back to the way it was. Only Srila Prabhupada’s books should be printed, nobody should be taking a salary.
And no Friends of the BBT. From all appearances, some unscrupulous people are making money off of donations to the BBT (with ISKCON’s and the BBT’s full consent). Somehow this seems even worse than people at the BBT taking salaries.
Friends of the BBT has to be a scam. The only way I’d see it otherwise would be if the people who run the Friends of the BBT wouldn’t be taking a cut, if all the money were going directly to the BBT. Like I said, I don’t know if they’re getting a piece of the action, but the wording on their website leads me to believe that it’s true.
If the BBT were to only print Srila Prabhupada’s books, there would be very little overhead. If they were not taking salaries, there would be even less overhead. BBT’s financial problems simply wouldn’t exist, just like they didn’t exist when Srila Prabhupada was with us.
But when you start publishing other devotees’ books, which “require” the authors and editors to be paid, and when you start paying the people who work at the BBT, it becomes top heavy and requires more money to stay afloat. This seeming lack of funds creates the false need of another organization (Friends of the BBT) to keep it going.
However, this need for a charity organization to keep the BBT alive isn’t really a need at all. If the BBT would do things as Srila Prabhupada wanted, there would be no “need” for any of this. Is this such a difficult thing to understand?
- Is this a true statement? I’ve never heard about Prabhupada wanting other books to be translated. I think it’s great that they’re being translated, but don’t feel the BBT is the publisher to release them. I certainly don’t feel it’s right to just say that Prabhupada wanted them to be translated if he didn’t say that he did. [↩]
- Kirtananda’s Christ and Krishna is a good example of this. [↩]
- Srila Prabhupada stopped short of saying what the other fifty percent was for, because he had stated it many times before. The other fifty percent was for building temples. [↩]
Is that really, really true…. that SP said no salaries to BBT devotees? >>>> And that now salaries are going on??? Wuuaauuu!
Seems to have been going on since at least 1977. Hayagriva (and others) were being given salaries and Srila Prabhupada told them to stop.
Of course, he also said “The cannot change anything” referring to his own books – and we see how that’s turned out. :)
Friends of the BBT is part of the BBT, as far as I know.
The Bhaktivedanta Archives and the BBT are two separate institutions. The Friends of the BBT is a branch of the BBT, and that is why, I suspect, they mention that all the money donated to the Archives will go to the Archives; the money donated to the BBT through Friends of the BBT is already in the BBT.
The BBT did print other books before 1977, as for example SDG’s Readings in Vedic Literature.
I’m not sure about that, but if it’s true, there’s even less of a need for it.
You’re right. SDG’s book was put out by the BBT in ’77. Prabhupada knew about it and seemed fine with it.
However, SDG’s book was based soley upon Srila Prabhupada’s books.
My understanding is that most of the people who work at Friends of BBT are householders living in the Alachua, Florida community and they donate their time and energy. At least that’s what one of my godsisters who works there told me in a letter last year. I have no reason not to believe her.
Actually this “Friends of the BBT” is a take-off on a program I began way back in ’74. From 1969 onward I had been developing the mail order department for ISKCON Press which later became BBT and then in ’74 I decided to start a membership program through the mail for people who were writing letters to me (the secretary) and placing orders for books, beads, etc. The program was successful. Not only were we bringing a fair amount of money in each month but also many people ended up joining ISKCON as a result of their participation in the program.
You brought up some good points and you might want to ask your questions directly to the folks there in Alachua. I do know that when it comes to nonprofit organizations like United Way or Red Cross — by law they must use at least fifteen percent of the moneys donated toward the causes they support. The rest goes to administrative fees, salaries, promotions, etc.
Maybe they *do* donate their time. And if they do, that’s great. But I’ve been around devotees long enough to know how “fund raising” works. Sure, they give 15% (maybe…), but the rest goes to line their pockets. I’m sure devotees don’t have the market cornered on this one, but I seriously doubt that there’s philosophical evidence to back up pocketing this money.
A membership program isn’t a bad idea, of course. But only using 15%… I’ve seen devotees doing that. It’s just not right.
Back when Prabhupada was there, promotion wasn’t that difficult of a thing. You had thousands of devotees devoting all of their time to promotion. Promotion and book distribution were basically the same thing.
But the membership program could also be a slippery slope. Prabhupada said that the BBT had to give 50% to the printing of books, 50% to building temples. However, a membership program outside of the BBT doesn’t fall under Prabhupada’s commandment. Big fake loophole! You get the picture.
Hare Krishna.
Your article about Friends of the BBT was brought to my attention.
As the director of Friends of the BBT, I thank Eric for pointing out the misleading text on our web site (it is now changed).
In fact ALL project sponsorships go 100% to the project sponsored. In some cases, like the Art Seminar, Friends of the BBT spends directly on the project. In other cases like the Archives we transfer funds to the implementing organization, That is why I mentioned it like this.
Regarding salaries, the BBT tries to accommodate its staff wherever possible in the same kind of ashram life as during Srila Prabhupada’s presence. However, for many BBT servants such ashram facilities are not available or are inappropriate.
These servants receive maintenance stipends to cover their basic family expenses, far below the salaries they might get if working in the professional world.
On occasion the BBT does employ professionals and workers to get its work done rather than outsourcing to commercial vendors. In these cases the BBT may hire devotees, and ask these devotees to take a reduction in their normal rates.
You questioned:
“My first problem with this is where is the money going? If I were to donate $100 to Friends of the BBT, how much of that would actually go to the BBT?”
As stated, all project sponsorships go 100% to the project sponsored. Membership contributions go both to projects and the overhead of Friends of the BBT.
“How much of it would pay the salaries of the people who front Friends of the BBT?”
Fortunately all funding for staff stipends currently comes from contributions from our Board of Directors.
“And after their cut is skimmed off the top, how much of what is left of that $100 would go to printing Srila Prabhupada’s books and how much would go to the salaries of the people in charge of the BBT? ”
If you designate funds for printing 100% would go to printing.
“Of the $100 that I donated, how much of it would allow me to “directly connect with the mission of the BBT to fulfill your own interests in the essential work of spreading Krishna consciousness.”?”
You can designate where you want to serve and we will facilitate.
You also wrote:
“I assume that they are getting paid and that the profits of their books are split between the BBT and the author. ”
It is a standing policy of the BBT not to pay any royalties to authors. Our principal translator/author Gopiparanadhana prabhu receives an extremely modest stipend to maintain his simple life in India. There is no question of sharing profits.
You wrote:
“If the BBT were to only print Srila Prabhupada’s books, there would be very little overhead. If they were not taking salaries, there would be even less overhead. BBT’s financial problems simply wouldn’t exist, just like they didn’t exist when Srila Prabhupada was with us.”
Keeping books in print requires the least overhead but it is not insignificant. Warehousing, accounting, and customer service are key. Plus each reprint often requires upgrades to meet current printing technology.
But the main overhead of the BBT is to fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s request to translate his books in “as many languages” as possible. There is much to do in this.
You question:
“I’ve never heard about Prabhupada wanting other books to be translated. I think it’s great that they’re being translated, but don’t feel the BBT is the publisher to release them. I certainly don’t feel it’s right to just say that Prabhupada wanted them to be translated if he didn’t say that he did.”
Srila Prabhupada was directly asked by the GBC about future translation. You can read his response here:
http://friendsofthebbt.org/srila-prabhupada-future-bbt-translations
Srila Prabhupada’s emphasis on quality is why the BBT should be the publisher and why we need a training program that includes spiritual training as we are attempting in our school in Govardhan.
The main reason the BBT needs donations is to expand its service to Srila Prabhupada. In the past book distribution could provide for a lot of expansion, but book distribution is down to about 25% of its pre-1978 level.
Srila Prabhupada would personally solicit donations for his book fund to expand the BBT. We are simply trying to follow in his food steps.
I hope this answers your doubts. Please feel free to write me directly any time.
Your servant,
Pancharatna dasa
pancharatna@friendsofthebbt.org