ABERDEEN, Scotland – The UK esoteric community has been saddened by the decision of the Findhorn Community to end its educational operations, due to ongoing financial difficulties. Registered in 1972 and founded by Peter Caddy, his wife Eileen Caddy, and their friend Dorothy Maclean, the charitable trust is an intentional community, familiar to the Pagan and esoteric community of the UK and, indeed, of the world. It does not espouse a formal doctrine but was initially influenced by theosophy, Rosicrucian thought and other spiritual practices of the day.
The Findhorn Foundation College was established in 2001 and one of its core activities has been education. Until now, around 3000 participants have engaged in Findhorn workshops every year, from permaculture to personal transformation. The centre became a United Nations training centre in 2006, specialising in environmental policy and sustainability. It’s a remarkable story, given that the centre began life as a single caravan and a handful of people working with nature spirits to grow vegetables.
Findhorn Foundation logo
We have reported before in The Wild Hunt on the devastating fire which destroyed the hexagonal community centre at Findhorn in April 2021. We reported at the time that the Foundation’s funds had diminished by 85% due to the pandemic and staff levels were reduced as a result: the fire was a consequence of this, having been set by Findhorn Foundation employee Joseph Clark, who had just been made redundant. Clark was initially jailed and then sentenced to community service, and donors contributed in the region of £1 million to the Foundation to assist in its recovery from the pandemic and the fire. However, other staff members who had been made redundant told the Scottish press that the pandemic had merely ‘accelerated’ an on-going process of scaling back and that the layoffs had already been on the cards pre-lockdown, since increasing staff costs had apparently led to the organisation running at a loss. Financial director Simon Steadman commented
“The ¬biggest financial challenge facing the foundation was the fact that for many years educational income had not been sufficient to cover expenditure and, in particular, the ever-growing cost of employing staff. Between 2016 and 2020, staff costs grew by 50%.”
The redundancies caused resentments to grow. One staff member, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Sunday Post in the summer of 2021 that:
“What Joseph did was completely wrong. He has had several issues with the management of the foundation over the years and his own health problems, but he might have been channelling the hurt and anger we have all been feeling.”
View of Findhorn [via Facebook]
However, Findhorn has continued to experience financial difficulties. Statements at the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) show that the charity is worth around £5 million and makes £2.2 million from its courses, but as Steadman says above, the cost of running the centre outstrips this by around £200,000. This summer Findhorn issued the following statement:
“It is with deep upset to write that the Findhorn Foundation will be ending educational operations by the end of September and placing over 50 staff at risk of redundancy. Despite our best efforts and the dedication and hard work of everyone in the community, we have not been able to bring our income and expenses into balance, and our forecast losses over the coming year would have been untenable.
Although we do not believe there is a viable way forward in our current configuration and operating model, we do not see this as the end of our vision and mission. We hope that after pausing our education activities and operations for six months or so, we can emerge with a new way forward for Findhorn Foundation SCIO which will be both financially viable and have significant impact and public benefit in the world.
The Foundation will cease to offer educational programmes after Friday 22 September, with participants receiving a full refund for payments already made. However, all programmes up to that date will continue as scheduled. We will contact people with affected bookings directly by 14th August 2023.
Events and activities in the Universal Hall at Findhorn, New Findhorn Directions including Findhorn Bay Holiday Park, Park utilities managed by NFD and NFD rental tenancies are all unaffected by this announcement.
We are aware that this news may bring sadness and shock given the iconic place that the Foundation has held for so many people over many decades. We invite people in our local and global community to collaborate with us in creating a process over the coming weeks which can properly mark the end of this era, which brings compassion and kindness to everyone affected by this, and which allows us to acknowledge and celebrate the decades of passion, hard work and achievement of the Foundation and Community.
The charity intends to sell off its non-core assets to the community or other organisations with a similar mission and is aiming to regroup in 2024 as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO). CEO Terence Gilbey, formerly of Esalen, told the press that:
“Recent years have presented many challenges, with Brexit impacting our visitors and volunteers, Covid closing our operations for many months, on-site fires taking our ability to serve guests at the Park eco-village, and finally the huge hike in energy bills impacting our ability to keep our buildings running. Our finances have been in decline over a long period with increased strain caused by the pandemic and, although we have already been through multiple restructuring processes, those measures alone were not enough to stabilise the charity’s finances. Since the late 80s and early 90s we have sold non-core assets to cover our losses but, unfortunately, that is not a solution. The steps we are taking now will, we hope, give us the opportunity to develop a new structure and operating model which will give us the best chance for a more financially sustainable future.”
Trustee Chair Mark Anderson said, “This will be upsetting news for many and my heartfelt sympathy goes out to everyone around the world who will be saddened by this, and particularly to all our staff, who will be most directly affected. We will be doing our utmost to support them during this difficult time, and working with our local and global community to properly and successfully navigate these challenges in a way which brings compassion and kindness to everyone affected, and which allows us to acknowledge and celebrate the decades of passion, hard work and achievement of the foundation and community. Although we do not believe there is a viable way forward in our current configuration, we do not see this as the end of our vision and mission. “
He added, “After reviewing and restructuring education activities, and subject to appropriate approvals and regulatory oversight, we hope that the new SCIO can emerge next year with a new way forward which will be both financially viable and have significant impact and public benefit in the world.”
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