Peace Abbey finds host of $1,000 angels

Karen Masterson believes the investment she made in Sherborn's Peace Abbey was not about the money.

"It was an investment in peace," she said.

The Sherborn resident is one of 152 investors participating in the new Peace Abbey Shareholders program, aimed at preventing the multifaith retreat center on North Main Street from closing down after years of financial strain.

The abbey aims to recruit 400 supporters willing to provide a $1,000 interest-free loan toward its $400,000 mortgage. Less than a month after the recruitment drive began, the abbey is approaching the halfway point of its goal, and founding director Lewis Randa was able to take the 3-acre abbey property - including a main building, chapel, and guesthouse - off the real estate market.

"We were looking for one angel to give us $400,000, and instead we got 152 angels. A check has come in the mail almost every day since we started," said Peace Abbey chaplain Dot Walsh. "We're making history here."

The shareholders plan guarantees investors will be reimbursed the exact amount they lent, after a month's notice. There are no banks involved - just a lawyer to oversee the transactions.

"People often want to support the work of nonprofits, but might not be able to give the money needed to do so," said Masterson. "This way, if something should ever happen to the Peace Abbey, shareholders will get their money back. I'm secured by the property."

Randa opened the Peace Abbey in 1988 after Mother Teresa visited its parent nonprofit organization, the Life Experience School for the disabled, also founded by Randa.

The abbey, which solicits contributions only on its website, was nearly forced to relocate last fall after trying to survive on diminishing grants to the Life Experience School. After years of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on memorials commissioned without fund-raising in advance, it had been driven into debt and burdened by a yearly interest rate of $40,000. A year ago, Randa put the abbey property up for sale for $4.5 million, looking to establish an endowment. One potential buyer presented plans to convert the pacifist center into a condominium complex.

"People were so disheartened to just see the 'For Sale' sign outside," said Walsh. "It was a losing battle. By that time, we were looking at any kind of alternative to get us out."

The abbey conducted a short, unsuccessful search for a like-minded organization or individual to provide an interest-free loan to cover the $400,000 debt. Then, during the New England Peace Studies Association meeting last month at the abbey, Clark University professor Joe de Rivera suggested tackling the debt on a smaller scale.

"I said, 'Why would we look for a millionaire when a bunch of us at least have a thousand bucks?' " recalled de Rivera, now a shareholder. No one, including de Rivera, had heard of anything like it.

"There was a spark that seemed to go from one person to another," said Walsh, who was also at the meeting.

Masterson and others quickly responded to a sign outside the abbey soliciting contributors, and last month it replaced the "For Sale" sign. Others heard about it on the website or by word-of-mouth.

Masterson, also a member of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Boston, posted a flier about the program at her Framingham business, Big Fresh Café.

"One of my customers saw the sign and became a shareholder. I'm so excited this is working. It's brilliant," she said. "I am definitely taking it to other nonprofits I'm involved with."