LYWA Strategic Plan 2025
The LYWA Strategic Plan 2025: The Enduring Wisdom of Our Lamas outlines how LYWA will move forward as an organization, preserving, sharing, and expanding access to the teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche for the benefit of current practitioners and future generations.
See below for details on LYWA’s four strategic priorities: Preservation, Access, Community and Resilience. Download the PDF here.
Partnering with You for the Future
We are so grateful to all of you who support our mission to preserve and share the peerless wisdom of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche with everyone everywhere.
The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (LYWA) is the collected works of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche and is the archive of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). The Archive was founded in 1996 by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, its spiritual director, who chose the name Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive out of humility and in honor of his teacher.
LYWA is uniquely positioned to present the teachings of Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and other great lamas in a variety of formats, prepared by highly qualified editors with decades of experience. For practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism in general, and students of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in particular, LYWA is an essential resource for authentic Buddhist teachings in the Mahayana tradition.
The LYWA team is looking forward to continuing our work for many years to come. The development of this plan affirms our shared vision of who we are and what we do best as an organization, our alignment around future projects for transcribing, cataloging, publishing and sharing the contents of the Archive, and our commitment to partnering with and supporting the entire FPMT family.
The Archive's Core Contributions
The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive manages the audio and video recordings, transcripts and advice, formal and informal video, and images of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche collected over the past fifty years, from the early 1970s through 2023.
We prepare materials for publication through various avenues including books for free distribution and sale, ebooks on a wide range of readers, social media, multimedia, audiobooks, podcasts, videos on our YouTube channel, lightly edited transcripts and audio on our website, and a monthly e-letter sent to our subscribers. We also support the translation of LYWA publications into more than nineteen languages.
Our strategic planning process has identified LYWA’s core contributions and strengths:
- Preservation of Authentic Legacies: Collecting, safeguarding, and maintaining the complete body of recordings, transcripts, images and video of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in enduring formats.
- Accessibility for All: Freely offering the teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in a variety of formats, providing clear, approachable, and useful resources to both longtime practitioners and newcomers alike.
- Relevance to Everyday Life: Demonstrating that Buddhist wisdom is not distant or abstract, but practical, meaningful, and helpful for modern challenges and daily living.
- A Global Treasury of Wisdom: Serving as a priceless repository that both preserves and disseminates timeless Dharma, helping people everywhere connect with the compassion and insight of the Lamas.
LYWA's Strategic Priorities
Together with your support, we are committed to delivering on these four strategic priorities: Preservation, Access, Community and Resilience.
PRESERVATION
Strategic Priority: Ensure Lama Yeshe’s and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s wisdom endures as a timeless source of Dharma
Catalog, transcribe, and edit the teachings to ensure Lama Yeshe’s and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s wisdom remains an authentic, living source of Dharma across cultures and generations. We are inspired by the Lamas to do our very best to steward this precious collection so that it continues to benefit beings for all time.
Preservation Goals
- Emphasize Transcription: Prioritize all of Lama Yeshe’s untranscribed teachings, and the untranscribed teachings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche from the early 2000s, by recruiting and training transcribers.
- Finish Archiving: Complete the migration of the LYWA image archive, as well as secondary collections such as Rinpoche’s advice files, to AssetBank, our digital asset management system.
- Strengthen Archival Systems: Improve metadata, searchability and digital organization so teachings are easier to find, cross-reference, and preserve in the long term.
- Develop a Long-Term Preservation Roadmap: In partnership with FPMT, create a phased, realistic plan for completing archival work and preserving original source materials.
Did You Know?
- Almost all of Lama Yeshe’s teachings have been transcribed with only 36 of Lama’s teaching events still awaiting transcription.
- While 1,113 of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching events have been transcribed, there are still 570 teaching events (34%) that must be transcribed.
- 325 of Lama Yeshe’s and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching events have been published and another 1,623 events (83%) have yet to be published.
LYWA is unique in the FPMT—no other entity focuses full-time on archiving and making available the Lamas’ teachings, images, videos, audio, books, transcripts and advices.
Our lineage spans 50 years of extensive teaching; it’s vital these materials are preserved for us and for future generations.
We have so much work left to do!
ACCESS
Strategic Priority: Expand and deepen access through publishing and technology
Publish free books and transcripts, provide clearer pathways for website visitors to engage with the content, diversify formats to expand our reach, and use emerging technologies to make the teachings more engaging, accessible, and relevant to longtime practitioners and newcomers alike.
Access Goals
- Publish More Free Books: Produce at least one new volume of Lama Yeshe’s teachings per year, along with other unique projects envisioned by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, adding to the nearly one million copies of LYWA books in print.
- Partner with Wisdom Publications: Provide editing and publishing support to continue adding Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s books to the Wisdom Culture Series.
- Enhance Digital Platforms: Upgrade website navigation, search tools, and user pathways to improve accessibility to LYWA’s three websites for current practitioners and new seekers.
- Expand Content Formats and Curation: Offer materials in multiple formats and curate collections organized by topic or practice.
- Strengthen Audience Engagement: Use digital communications such as email, social media, and emerging formats to engage the worldwide LYWA and FPMT community and reach new audiences.
COMMUNITY
Strategic Priority: Increase engagement and provide support so all members of the FPMT family can access and share the Lamas’ teachings
Provide resources to FPMT centers, study groups, projects, and services to deepen community connection to the FPMT lineage. LYWA plays a vital role in helping the worldwide FPMT family access and share the teachings of the Lamas, ensuring global reach.
Community Goals
- Develop the Family Feeling Project: Provide LYWA books to FPMT organizations with free shipping to welcome visitors, cultivate connections within the wider FPMT family, and support study programs.
- Provide Accessible Course Materials: Create easy-to-implement study programs based on LYWA publications.
- Encourage Translations: Support FPMT centers and translation projects in translating the Lamas’ teachings into non-English languages.
RESILIENCE
Strategic Priority: Strengthen LYWA’s resilience so teachings remain freely available for future generations
The LYWA team is committed to delivering our mission for as long as possible. To support this vision, we will build leadership continuity, strengthen organizational partnerships, and diversify revenue to ensure LYWA’s work can continue for generations to come.
Resilience Goals
- Formalize Succession Planning: Document and initiate leadership, editorial and fundraising succession plans to ensure continuity beyond current leadership.
- Build Organizational Capacity: Recruit and train the next generation of editors and transcribers.
- Diversify and Secure Funding: Develop a balanced funding model that sustains our work by blending major gifts, recurring donations, and legacy giving.
- Increase Board Membership: Recruit skillful, dedicated students of the Lamas to grow the LYWA Board of Directors.
Join Us!
It is only through your kind and generous support that we have been able to do all this beneficial work for the sake of all sentient beings. As we near our 30th anniversary, our commitment to continuing the work of preserving and sharing the Lamas’ teachings is stronger than ever.
Over the past fifteen years we have built up an amazing team of talented and dedicated people, who make everything we do possible. It would be a true blessing to continue this work for as long as possible, preserving the enduring wisdom of our Lamas and bringing more and more Dharma teachings to the entire world in many new and different ways.
We welcome your pledges and donations to help us establish a firm foundation to pursue our mission well into the future.