Our Story

Why the name LOTUS?  We believe in resilience.

The lotus has a life cycle unlike any other. With its roots based in mud, it submerges every night into murky river water, and—undeterred by its dirty environment—it miraculously re-blooms the next morning without residue on its petals. It symbolizes spiritual enlightenment and rebirth. The flower continues to resurrect itself, coming back each day just as beautiful as it was last seen.  We can take a lesson from this by living life with unwavering faith, as the lotus does.

Our acronym stands for ‘Lifting Others Through Unselfish Service.’

Our organization was started during the COVID pandemic, a time when connection with others was difficult. Connection is one of the most meaningful and necessary aspects of being human. LOTUS believes in the power of real human interaction and works with the understanding that we are all one...all connected. When we help others, we help ourselves.

Our founder was inspired to start LOTUS after meeting Saral Sharma and working with him in the slums of New Delhi. Saral's example of altruism has since spread to projects in multiple countries throughout the world.

Each of our board members is a humanitarian at heart and every penny we collect goes to serve. We take no salaries and pay all of our own expenses when we travel to our projects.  Unlike many other nonprofits, where a large amount of the collected funds go to overhead and admin costs, we are entirely volunteer run. You can be sure that when you give to LOTUS, your money is going to spread love and relieve suffering.