Himalayan Village Fund

Who We Are

Himalayan Village Fund was founded in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas in 2011 by a group of former schoolteachers who have travelled extensively in the Himalayan areas of India and Nepal. We are animated by a love of those mountains and the resilient but often impoverished people who live there.  

Spending time in Himalayan foothill villages inescapably confronts you with neediness and deprivation at very fundamental levels. You see in a hundred ways how much good could be done with very little money by First World standards. We will be looking for small village-level projects that address basic needs—medical, educational, nutritional, etc.—of poor villagers. We will favor projects that with moderate investments can bring immediate, measurable, sustainable benefits to some of Asia’s neediest people.

Why We Are Different

No overhead.  We pledge that 100% of donations we receive will be used to fund the projects we identify. No member of our organization will receive a penny in compensation. We will personally bear any expenses we incur in traveling to India and Nepal to identify projects or in fund raising.  

Direct, painstaking, on-site investigation of all projects we fund. We will recommend for funding only those projects that members of our board have carefully researched, firsthand.  

A resolutely small size and simple structure. We started small and will stay small. Complicated projects funded and implemented from a distance will not interest us. We will confine ourselves to funding modest projects that will provide immediate, demonstrable benefits to those villagers we serve.  

A simple, personal approach to running our organization.  Because we are small, we can readily make ourselves accessible to anyone interested in our projects, and we can provide help to villagers whom we have come to know personally. Previous person-to-person contact with some Indian and Nepali villagers has led quite directly to the formation of this non-profit. Such personal interaction will be foundational to who we are.