Garrison Institute is a retreat center that provides education and performs research on meditative contemplation and how it can be applied to social activism. It offers programs and retreats in its Garrison, New York location that cover the connection of contemplation and “mindfulness” with left-of-center social issues such as environment and sustainability, education, and social justice, and the ability to create change. ¹

Background

The Garrison Institute was founded in 2003 by Diana Calthorpe Rose and Jonathan Rose. The Institute is a meditative retreat center that offers programs that incorporate contemplation and mindfulness and hosts retreats with contemplative leaders such as the Dalai Lama, Father Thomas Keating, Rabbi Zalman Schechter, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield. The Institute also offers retreats for people of color and for LGBT people. ² The Institute is housed at a former Capuchin monastery in Garrison, New York. ³

Its programs are designed to apply contemplation to current social and environmental issues to create change by developing new thought leaders that can inspire people by appealing to their emotions as well as to their minds. ⁴

In 2012, the Institute opened the Garrison Institute International, an international branch located at the Hague in the Netherlands to manage its international programs. ⁵

Programs

In 2021, the Institute hosted retreats for more than 5,500 people from around the world with contemplative speakers that covered the connection of contemplation with social issues such as environment and sustainability, education, and social justice. ⁶

The Garrison Institute Fellowship program was established in 2020 as a two-year program to create a network of scholars and activists that leverage contemplation and mindfulness to discuss the current world of perceived oppression, white supremacy, and capitalism and bring about social change .⁷

Garrison Institute developed “Pathways to Planetary Health” to address environmental change. Planetary health refers to the concept that human well-being is dependent on the well-being of the earth. ⁸ The program conducts research, runs leadership programs and forums, and offers courses to address planetary health. ⁹

In August 2022, the Institute launched the “Compassionate Leadership in Finance” program, a four-month executive leadership program that teaches “self-compassion, compassion for others, and compassion for the social and environmental context” while ensuring that ESG (environmental, social, and governance) and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) goals are met. The pilot program was attended by executives from Ford Foundation, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley. ¹⁰

Funding

Garrison Institute reported 2020 revenues of $2,779,160 and expenses of $2,434,966. ¹¹

Garrison Institute is funded by the Lostand Foundation of its co-founders Jonathan and Diana Rose. Other donors include National Philanthropic Trust, Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund, Schwab Charitable Fund, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and Richard Gere’s Gere Foundation, ¹² which focuses on the spiritual and cultural survival of the Tibetan people and Tibetan Buddhism. ¹³

Leadership

Cofounder Jonathan F. P. Rose is board chair. He has described himself as both Jewish and Buddhist. ¹⁴ He is founder of Jonathan Rose Companies, a green real estate urban planning and development firm ¹⁵ which has won awards from Global Green USA, Urban Land Institute, and Natural Resources Defense Council. ¹⁶ Jonathan Rose Companies is focused on minimizing greenhouse gas emissions on all properties it designs, builds, and operates. ¹⁷ He is a trustee of Enterprise Community Partners and Capital Institute. ¹⁸

Co-founder Diana Calthorpe Rose is founding president emerita. She has sat on the boards of several Buddhist organizations in America and is also president of the Lostand Foundation founded by Rose and her husband in 1997 that supports many left-of-center social and environmental causes. ¹⁹

Karen Doyle Grossman is executive director. She is founder and advisor for Aspen Institute’s MicroMentor program. Previously Doyle was senior director and global head of operations for Google’s Search Inside Yourself (SIY) Global program. ²⁰

Sharon Salzberg is spiritual director and a frequent speaker and teacher at the Garrison Institute. She has been learning and teaching meditation and mindfulness for over 45 years. She is co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society and author of 12 books on meditation. She has been a featured speaker at events at Skoll Foundation World Forum and TEDx. ²¹

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