Wednesday 20 March 2019

Exploring Soka Gakkai SGI Buddhist International Network

By Barbara Anderson


When it comes to the history of Buddhism, the practice dates back thousands of years. While this is the case, the Soka Gakkai International sgi buddhist organization was founded at a conference on world peace in 1975. Individuals representing 51 countries were in attendance at the meeting. Sine that time, the organization has added local organizations while the national organization has grown to over 12 million individuals now holding a membership.

The U. S. Headquarters of SGI is located Chicago, Illinois. The organization started as an intentional peace movement which had hoped to take the world by storm. By choosing Guam as the place for the meeting, the area's ties to World War II and the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the group hoped to stress the need for world peace.

The original global expansion of the group began just after the end of World War II. In large part, the expansion was due to the high number of servicemen married to Soka Gakki members, whom once married left Japan. In some cases, the couples also had children whom were coming to a real home for the first time. For, the servicemen with families at that time often lived in large tents.

Uruguay honored the twenty fifth anniversary of the organization with a commemorative postage stamp in 2000. The stamp was first issued on October 2nd, the anniversary of SGI President Ikeda's first journey overseas in 1960. As such, the stamp continues to hold a great deal of value in Uruguay and other countries around the world.

The Peace Research Institute in 2015 announced that the organization had received a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. After which, the nomination was affirmed by a local Nobel Peace Laureate. While having been nominated was quite an honor, the prize actually went to a group from Tunisia who received the prize for a project to create a more pluralistic democracy in the country.

The SGI-Italy was recognized by the Italian government for the first in 2015. The government also acknowledged the organization as an official religion which makes the SCI eligible to accept tax payer contributions. As such, donations by individuals qualify as deductions on personal tax records when it comes to filing tax returns. It is important that individuals discuss all tax-free donations with a CPA, or at the very least, have a clear understanding of how to report donations when it comes to tax-free operations.

The SGI is now comprised of a global network of affiliated groups and organizations. As of 2011, the group had over one hundred ninety active organizations in territories and countries with twelve million plus members. While headquarters for two such organizations are located in Tokyo, each are independent of the other. Whereas, all national locations can receive funds from the International Headquarters if selected to do so.

All local SGI organizations operate autonomously with all business dealings are provided in the native language of the country. In addition, most of the national organizations are sponsored and coordinated by local community not-for-profit groups. Wile this is the case, most locations organize and produce at least one fundraiser to raise funds on a quarterly or annual basis.




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