How would you like to not have to hear me asking you for your help in paying off the land mortgage of $300,000 ever again???
Let me explain the situation: we do not presently own the land, and haven’t been able to own our own land for decades for a dumb and totally unjust rule. Banks don’t lend to nonprofits, period, and that’s across the board everywhere countrywide and maybe even worldwide, because banks don’t want the Scrooge Complex to be laid upon them; they simply don’t want to have to EVER foreclose on a church or synagogue, and that’s the whole reason, nothing to do with law or business practices, just public relations.
Because we have a very good relationship with our bank, and we’ve practiced exceptionally good management over the past 43 years, never ever missing a mortgage payment, we’re being offered a chance to actually own our own property, and without a qualified co-signer (someone earning over $200,000 a year would barely qualify). We are being considered for a loan, but we must bring some money to the table, actually $15,000 in cash, straight up.
This is great. It’s far less than the $300,000 that had been demanded when we wanted to own the property as a corporation, not lease or rent it from someone who might or might not want to or be able to own it in the future. $15,000 buys us freedom. Not $300,000, but $15,000.
Under normal circumstances, that could be built into our budget for next year, but we need it now. Right now.
Cash-flow is lousy everywhere, and it takes time to raise that kind of extra money, on top of the bills we pay every month, just as you do, except our family is in the thousands. Luckily, we don’t have to feed everyone all at once, but at some of our recent workshops, it has seemed that way. It’d be nice if workshops made a profit, but they don’t. It’s part of our service.
Our bank is willing to at least consider giving us the opportunity to own our own property. In order to get the loan, we’ll need $15,000 in straight cash.
We can’t take the $15,000 as a loan, because that would increase our indebtedness and therefore disqualify us for the big loan, so it has to be a donation or we sell something or do nothing else but fundraise from now until we have the necessary cash in hand, and there just isn’t time to organize anything effective that fast, but …
Failure is not an option.
This is our one chance for the Institute to own the property we call “The Land”.
But — to establish our credit rating as a serious player, meaning that in a year or two, we could quite easily purchase a campground without having to come up with the entire amount, as we would have had to do without this incredible break — we must act quickly. These kinds of banking miracles don’t happen often, and there’s a time limit, one week, in which we have to come up with the cash, and we need your help right now.
What a strange bind. If we had more time, six months or a year, we’d have no problem. Can’t buy the time with a short-term loan, because that would disqualify us for the big loan. We have a strict credit limit, creating this peculiar “Catch-22”.
Is there any way out of this “Catch-22”???
Sure there is. Maybe you don’t have the total $15,000 in your sock drawer — hardly anyone these days does. But perhaps you’ve got some, or maybe not cash, maybe some gold or silver coins, or a collection of cards or dolls or buttons tucked away, maybe even with the idea of donating something in the future.
Well, frankly, waiting is not good, because if the time ever comes when the present mortgage holders are not able to hold onto the mortgage (they have other indebtedness that could endanger the land if there were any liens on another property owned by them, see?) and the bank demands the full mortgage in one lump sum. Well, we won’t be able to deal with it quickly enough to manage a solution — I don’t know any organization that could handle something as catastrophic as that and survive, unless it’s a major corporation, and even they can collapse under a sudden weight.
So just because you don’t have the entire $15,000 doesn’t mean you can’t participate and contribute. This really is the time, Kato.
Why didn’t I mention this weeks or months ago? The opportunity just came up, and it’s one of those delightful surprises, but we wish we’d known last year that this was going to happen. Up until now, there has been no chance whatever of us owning our own land.
Let’s work together quickly to make this happen, please. It takes all the economic pressure down several dozen notches, and we’ll be able to concentrate on what’s important — the Ashram and your work, and I don’t want to have to keep asking for a huge donation to pay off the mortgage, when $15,000 handles the matter once and for all.
Maybe you don’t have cash, but you might have some valuable collectibles collecting dust. Why not let us convert that into cash for the Mortgage Project? $15,000 is the goal, and it’s a goal we can reach if we work together to get this mortgage issue handled and out of the way permanently!
Please phone, email or text us with your pledges.
See You At The Top!!!
gorby