Why the Berkeley Herbal Center is a Nonprofit

Berkeley Herbal Center is one of a handful of Western Herbal School and herbal training clinics nationally that operates as a non profit. 

From the beginning, our founder, Pam, had a dream to make the school, clinic and the herb room into a nonprofit. To operate business as a service for all.

Her dream was to operate as an independent non profit – not as a company sheltered under a nonprofit. Because of this, BHC (then Ohlone Herbal Center), spent three years applying, talking with the IRS, and restructuring the business to meet all the nonprofit requirements.

What Does it Mean to Be a Nonprofit?

Our nonprofit serves the community. We cannot be sold for the benefit of a founder, board member, or staff member. Our business is owned by the community under the supervision and care of a board of directors.

Our non-profit was established with the idea that access to healing and traditional herbal medicine should not be based in a profit model.

We believe that schools of healing should be affordable and accessible.  We believe that each person we treat helps to make our community more resilient and stronger every day.

Our Nonprofit Earns Resources

We have prided ourselves on creating a sustainable model and living within our earned resources.

Many nonprofits continue to do their good work off of donations and grants.  We do not. BHC is not funded by any corporation, government grant, or business. We are funded by the community joining our classes and long term certifications, coming to the clinic, and getting their medicine from our trained practitioners.

For time to time we seek seed money for funding a special program or additional equipment.  We have found some special angels to help us with these asks. This allows us to continue to create our outstanding courses and training the best practitioners in the country.

Being a Nonprofit Makes Us a Movement!

Our students show up to the center with passion for traditional healing wisdom of our plant allies.

Through our program, our students learn the ability to bring deep plant-based knowledge back to the people of our community. This is what we put all of our resources into growing.

You’ll find us working in the background to help our students and alumni get herbal clinics off the ground, create schools around the world, offer new teaching opportunities for our graduates, and help to birth herbal product companies!

This type of work takes time, energy, and love. It takes vision and careful thought and constant planning to keep our dream expanding. We have created hundreds of herbalists over the past 25 years. They’ve expanded across the world and started their own pathways.

We’re a mycelial network of healing. Being a nonprofit allows us to continue funneling all of our resources into the growth of the traditional herbal community. We’re not just a school. We’re a movement.