About Us

The Zen Foundation was created by Alvin J. Alexander. Mr. Alexander previously created a very successful software development firm named Mission Data in Louisville, Kentucky in 1996, and sold it in 2007. He recently created a new programming firm in Colorado named Valley Programming, and alvinalexander.com receives millions of page views every year.

Mr. Alexander recently published two eBooks, "How I Sold My Business: A Personal Diary", and "You want me to do what? A Survival Guide for New Consultants", and his new book, Scala Cookbook, is being published by O'Reilly Media.

Having created successful "for profit" companies before, Mr. Alexander wanted to create the Zen Foundation as a charitable, nonprofit company to do what Steve Jobs called, "Putting a dent in the universe".

Running the Zen Foundation

As you can see from our mission statement, our work is very simple: Accept donations, and use that money to buy and distribute classic Zen literature to organizations where people can easily "discover Zen". Our intent is to do this as efficiently as possible.

Since Mr. Alexander is a computer programmer, he was able to create this website and connect to PayPal so we can assure you that your contributions will be handled very securely. We also have no official offices, other than Mr. Alexander's residence; as a result, our current expenses are very low, and we aim to keep them that way. Our hope is that by extensively automating everything, keeping overhead low, using the internet, and making volume purchases, we can maximize the use of your donations to purchase and distribute classic Zen literature.

Contact Information

If you have any questions, you can reach Mr. Alexander by using the contact form on this website, or you can reach him by phone at 720-431-1945.