History & Founder

Just before Christmas 1999, at the age of 52, Janet Smith traveled to China to become a first-time mother to a little girl from Hunan Province. Nine years later, in the spring of 2008, she established The Mother House Fund to inspire the work of creating local and global life-sustaining connections in the name of compassion, healing and hope.

Shortly after establishing The Mother House Fund, His Holiness the Dalai Lama came to Janet’s home city of Seattle, Washington, to lead a Seeds of Compassion conference. Thousands of children participated. This is the nature of the work she envisioned for The Mother House. The Mother House Fund's first grant was given to underwrite the cost of 100 children participating in the Seeds of Compassion programs with the Dalai Lama.

Nandie Oosthuizen addressing His Holiness the Dalai Lama at
Seattle’s Compassion in Action event. Photo taken by Katie McCullough Simmons.

At the April 2008 Seeds of Compassion conference, Janet heard a young 18 year old woman named Nandie Oosthuizen speak of the need for funding to get philanthropic efforts off the ground – especially for teens who want to make a difference in the world. Janet was inspired to create a special initiative – The Mother House Fund’s Seeds of Compassion Youth Grants Program, designed to support local Puget Sound-area youth with seed money to help launch their efforts. Applications for this initiative are accepted every year between January and the end of March.