What is the RiverGanga Foundation?

RiverGanga Foundation is the organization that makes possible the work of John and Carla Sherman. The Foundation serves this purpose by using the money donated to it to purchase the equipment, services, and utilities needed to conduct that work.

RiverGanga Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation that operates as a 509(a)(2) public charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code, and under the authority and supervision of the Internal Revenue Service and the California Franchise Tax Board. The Foundation is required by law to substantiate the basis of its not-for-profit, tax-exempt status by filing annual financial reports and statements of activities with the IRS and the State of California Franchise Tax Board.

Since practically all of the income to the Foundation comes from relatively small donations, the Foundation is considered a Public Charity by the IRS. And that means that if you itemize your deductions, you will pay no income tax on donations made to us.

Because of its status as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, the RiverGanga Foundation is able to purchase many goods and services, including computers, software, and services at steep discounts, since corporations can deduct donations of goods and services from their taxable income. The online webinar software, donated by Citrix, is an example of this. To take advantage of the level of service that we enjoy now because of their donation, it would cost the foundation $500 a month, which is to say there would be no online meetings at all.

RiverGanga Foundation also has purchased and owns all of the computers, software, audio and video equipment, web services, and even the van we use to travel to events.

Who is the RiverGanga Foundation?

In more down-to-earth terms, RiverGanga Foundation is John and Carla Sherman, living in a rental house in Ojai, California. The top half of the house is given over to the office, with all the stuff accumulated in more than thirteen years of operation.

RiverGanga Foundation is John and Carla spending an average of ten hours a day, every day:

• planning, writing, designing, creating and managing six websites;


• organizing and conducting several in person events — annual Three-Day Retreats and Public Meetings — as well as online events such as the monthly Sunday Worldwide Online Meetings, the Wednesday Open House Meetings three times a month, video and audio interviews, live broadcasts on YouTube, and Private Conversations with people all over the world every month;


• performing, from beginning to end, the painstaking, time-consuming recording, editing, production and publication of every audio recording, every video, everything you have ever read, listened to or watched on our websites, on our two YouTube channels, our two podcast channels on iTunes, our Tumblr blog, our Facebook and Twitter accounts, and on websites all over the world that reproduce our feeds.


• and, one of the great satisfactions of this work, albeit time consuming, reading hundreds of emails, forum postings, blog comments and other communications from people all over the world every day.

Since 2011, RiverGanga Foundation, which is to say us — all of us since nothing happens without your support — has taken on a breathtaking project: the worldwide propagation of the simple idea of inward looking at the experience of being me to enough people so that everyone has a chance to at least hear of it.

Read more about Just One Look.

Our work is paid for entirely by the generosity of people who have had direct experience with the looking and who see the breathtaking promise that lies in bringing this simple act of looking at yourself to the attention of as many human beings as possible. Please consider making a monthly pledge in any amount to help cover our day-to-day operating expenses.