Program Criteria
The following criteria are used to select projects, programs or initiatives for Tibetan Healing Fund.

Tibetan Healing Fund supports projects which:
  • Provide vocational, educational training and capacity building.
  • Promote sustainable development in the region where Tibetan Healing Fund works using transparent and participatory methods.
  • Address social and humanitarian needs, specifically basic education and primary health care projects in an effort to develop holistic programs.
  • Incorporate local and traditional knowledge.
  • Create partnerships in the region to achieve greater synergy of individuals, communities and organizations.
  • Human capacity development including increased knowledge and skills of staff, volunteers and communities served.
  • Include short-range focus in a long-range plan.

Tibetan Healing Fund does not support projects which:
  • Do not incorporate local knowledge.
  • Lack transparency.
  • Operate without participation or involvement of Tibetans.
  • Destroy or harm Tibetan culture, traditions or sacred sites.
  • Have any political affiliation or relationship.

Projects and programs must adhere to the following:
  • Tibetan Healing Fund’s mission, goals and guiding principles.
  • Policies (bylaws, business plan, project proposals, project guidelines and rationale) of Tibetan Healing Fund.
  • Contracts and Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with local project partners, governmental, non-governmental, corporate or individual donors of Tibetan Healing Fund.
  • Approval by the Board of Directors.

Approach to Participatory Involvement:
  • Develop meaningful project strategies through group discussions, forums and focus groups with the proposed beneficiaries.
  • Beneficiaries are able to clearly demonstrate a very high degree of local involvement, which benefits the entire community, either directly or indirectly.
  • Technically and socially support local autonomy and help to develop the decision-making capabilities of the project beneficiaries.
  • Contribute to community capacity building with project ownership being held by the beneficiaries themselves.

Work Process

Three steps to take the process of project: First step, local Tibetan advisories develop project plan and proposal based on ongoing project and community needs; Second step, THF USA team will receive the proposal and must have board approval; and Third step, In-Country work team implements and reports project.  

For monitoring and evaluation, THF’s In-Country team, advisory board, program committee and/or board members frequently travel to project site to meet local beneficiaries and monitor and evaluate projects on a regular basis to discern if the projects are reaching their goals, achieving their projected outcomes and if they are doing so in an effective manner.  

​A final evaluation will take place at the end of the project implementation period. THF promotes a continuous cycle of data collection, analysis and utilization to improve education and health conditions.

THF operates with minimal overhead and relies heavily on the work of dedicated volunteers.  This means that donations directly go towards projects and benefits the people we serve.