Thursday Annadanam
Sponsors the free hot meal cooked and served every Thursday evening after aarati.
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Seva & SupportDonate & Sponsor a Seva
Every lamp lit, every meal served and every wall raised on New Hope Drive is paid for by the people who worship here. There is no other source of money.
Why we ask
What your giving actually pays for
A temple has running costs like any other building. The four daily aaratis need priests, oil, flowers and camphor. The Thursday Annadanam needs rice, vegetables, gas and a working kitchen. The roof needs repair and the electricity bill arrives whether or not it was a busy month.
Donations here fall into three plain categories: worship, feeding people, and keeping the buildings standing. Nearly every fund listed below belongs clearly to one of the three, and when you sponsor a named fund the office applies your gift to that purpose.
We do not publish fundraising totals on this page, and we do not print prices for sevas we have not confirmed. If you want to know what a particular sponsorship costs before you give, ring the office and ask.
Give today
Make a general donation
A general donation goes wherever the need is greatest that month — most often the kitchen, the utility bills and the priests' upkeep. If you would rather your gift went to one named fund, say which when you contact the office.
All donations are tax-deductible. The temple is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Suggested giving levels — these are suggestions, not prices. Give whatever you are able to give.
Card details are never collected on this page. The office will send you the temple's own donation page, or take your gift by cheque or in person.
Annadanam
No one leaves this temple hungry
Annadanam is the gift of food — the oldest and least complicated form of seva there is. You cook, and whoever comes eats.
A free hot meal is served here every Thursday and at every festival. There is no ticket, no registration and no expectation that you have donated, prayed or even entered the shrine — everyone who comes sits and eats the same food.
The Charity fund carries the same work beyond our gates, feeding people without homes in the Austin area. It is funded separately from the Thursday meal because it runs on a different schedule and buys different things.
- Thursday Annadanam — the weekly meal after Dhoop Aarati and Pallaki Seva.
- Festival Annadanam — larger meals served through Guru Poornima, Brahmotsavam and the major festival days.
- Charity — food taken out to people without homes in and around Austin.
Sponsorship amounts vary with the size of the meal and the day. The office will tell you the current figure and which Thursdays are still open.
Every fund
Choose where your donation goes
These are the temple's standing donation and sponsorship funds, grouped by what they pay for. Naming a fund when you give tells the office exactly where to apply it.
Feeding people
Annadanam
The general food fund — meals on festival days and any other occasion the temple feeds a crowd.
Charity
Feeding the poor and homeless in the Austin area, beyond the meals served on temple grounds.
Annual Food Mela Sponsors
Underwrites the yearly food mela — the ingredients, stalls and equipment behind the day.
Daily & recurring worship
Daily Archanas
Keeps the daily archana going — the naming and offering performed before the deities each day.
Daily Abhishekams
Pays for the milk, honey, water and materials used in the daily ceremonial bathing of the murtis.
Monthly Puja
A recurring monthly pooja performed in the donor's name, month after month, through the year.
Annual Pujas
A pooja performed once a year on a date you choose — a birthday, an anniversary or a remembrance.
Special Puja
A one-off pooja arranged with the priests for a particular intention or occasion.
Garlands for All Gods
Fresh flowers and garlands for every deity on the campus — an expense that recurs every single day.
Festivals & special poojas
Sudarshana Homam
The fire ritual to Vishnu's discus — sponsorship covers the homa materials, ghee and priests' time.
Sudarshana Jayanthi
The annual Sudarshana observance. These two amounts are published by the temple.
$31 / $51
Sponsor
Shani Triyodashi
Sponsors the Shani Triyodashi observance and the offerings made on that day.
Guru Purnima Celebrations Sponsorship
Supports the abhishekam, padapooja, decoration and all-day Annadanam of Guru Purnima.
Sudarshana Jayanthi is the only fund on this page with published amounts: $31 for the Abhishekam and $51 for the Homam. For every other fund, ask the office what a sponsorship costs — we would rather quote you correctly than print a number here that has gone stale.
Building the temple
Baba Pallaki and Peetam
The palanquin carried in Thursday's procession and the peetam Baba is seated upon — their making and upkeep.
Temple Ornamentation
Ornaments, silver work and decoration for the shrines and the deities.
Kitchen Expansion
Enlarging the kitchen so that Annadanam and festival cooking can be done at the scale now required.
Community Hall
The shared hall used for weddings, functions, classes and the overflow at festivals.
Temple Housing for Priests
Accommodation for the priests who serve both temples, so they can live near the campus they open at dawn.
Sri Venkateswara Temple Expansion
Construction work on the Sri Venkateswara Temple that shares our grounds on New Hope Drive.
Pushkara Kumbhabhishekam & Brahmotsavam
The consecration rites and the festival that accompany the completion of major temple work.
Ways to give
Three ways to make a donation
Whichever route you take, name the fund you want your gift applied to and give us a postal address or email so a receipt can reach you.
Online
The temple takes online donations through its own donation page. No payment form is reproduced here — ask the office and you will be sent the current link directly, so you know exactly where your card details are going.
By cheque
Make the cheque payable to Sri Shirdi Sai Baba Temple of Austin, write the fund name on the memo line, and post it to:
Sri Shirdi Sai Baba Temple of Austin
P.O. Box 877
Cedar Park, TX 78630-0877
Please do not send cash by post.
In person
Come to the temple office at 2509 West New Hope Drive during opening hours. A volunteer can take your donation, record the fund and hand you a receipt on the spot.
Employer matching gifts
Many employers match charitable donations to 501(c)(3) organizations, and some match volunteer hours. We cannot tell you whether yours does — ask your employer, then ring the office and we will supply whatever documentation the programme asks for.
Call the office
Tax status
Your donation is tax-deductible
The Sri Shirdi Sai Baba Temple of Austin is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and all donations to the temple are tax-deductible.
A receipt is issued for every contribution. If none has reached you, or you need a consolidated statement of your giving for a tax year, the office will prepare one.
For the temple's tax identification number, or any other documentation your accountant or an employer's matching-gift programme requires, write to info@saiaustin.org or call 512-528-0807. Those details are not published on the website, and nothing on this page is tax advice — for that, speak to your own adviser.
Before you give
Common questions
Is my donation tax-deductible?
Yes. The temple is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and all donations are tax-deductible. Keep your receipt, and ask the office if you need a summary of your giving for a tax year.
Can I give in someone's name or in their memory?
Yes. Sponsorships are regularly made in the name of a family member, in memory of someone who has died, or on behalf of a whole household. Give the names — and the gotra and nakshatra where they apply — and the priests will use them during the pooja.
Can I sponsor a specific date?
Usually, yes — Thursdays for Annadanam and particular days for annual poojas are sponsored well in advance, so popular dates go early. Ring the office with the date you have in mind and they will tell you whether it is still open before you send anything.
Do you accept in-kind gifts — flowers, groceries, materials?
Often, but please ask first. The kitchen and the shrines have real constraints on what can be used and stored, and an unexpected delivery can make more work than it saves. Call the office, describe what you would like to give, and they will say if and when to bring it.
How do I get a receipt?
A receipt is issued for every donation — handed to you at the office in person, or sent to the email or postal address you supply, so please include one. If a receipt has not reached you, write to info@saiaustin.org and it will be reissued.
Can I set up recurring giving?
Monthly Puja is the temple's standing recurring sponsorship, and several donors give a fixed amount each month towards Annadanam or construction. What can be arranged depends on how you pay, so ask the office rather than assuming a particular method works.
“Give food to the hungry, water to the thirsty and clothes to the naked. Then God will be pleased.”Sai Baba of Shirdi
Thank you
Thank you for holding this place up
Sponsorships are not announced from the front of the shrine and donors are not ranked. The meal is simply cooked, the lamp is simply lit, and the work goes on.
If you have given before, thank you. If you are giving for the first time, you join a long line of families who have kept this temple open, month after month, without being asked twice.
- Temple
- 2509 West New Hope Drive
Cedar Park, TX 78613 - Cheques by post
- P.O. Box 877
Cedar Park, TX 78630-0877 - Sai Baba Temple
- 512-260-2721
- Temple office
- 512-528-0807
- info@saiaustin.org