Our Mission | Ethical Tibetan Buddhist Artifacts | Dakini Goods
Our Story
Our journey began in 2005 during an academic immersion trip to South India. While we were there to learn Tibetan langauge, we quickly formed deep bonds with the local refugee community. As these relationships grew, we saw firsthand that while our friends and neighbors were incredibly resourceful, they were navigating significant systemic hurdles. It became clear that the primary barrier to basic needs—like reliable medical care, healthy food, and quality education—was simply a lack of financial resources.
We wanted to help bridge that gap, so we started small: selling cookies at a bake sale to fund scholarships. What began as a neighborhood effort grew naturally alongside our community ties, eventually blossoming into the Overseas Study Program (OSP). Today, as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, OSP trains students from around the globe to master the Tibetan language and translate the ancient wisdom of classical Buddhist texts.
To keep this mission sustainable, we created Dakini Goods. It serves as our fundraising arm, offering ethically sourced, authentic Tibetan Buddhist artifacts. Every purchase directly supports the Overseas Study Program, ensuring that our commitment to education and the community that welcomed us over twenty years ago remains at the heart of everything we do.
Our Mission
All the profits from our sales go towards supporting those in need. Our main areas of philanthropy include providing scholarships to promising translators of Buddhist texts, as well as supporting children from marginalized South Asian communities by supporting their schooling, food, housing, and medical needs.
We also support Dolma Dog Rescue, currently home to 200 rescued and abandoned dogs, many of whom are recovering from injuries and illness, or who were separated from the mothers as young puppies.
Our Core Values
Radical Kindness: Going out of our way to treat our staff, participants, and donors with kindness and respect
Joyful Effort: Creating fun programs and opportunities, and cultivating a positive environment in our work
Community: Fostering a supportive, collaborative, and engaged learning environment, and translation community
Integrity: Operating with transparency and responsibility
Outstanding CX: customer experience that focuses on educating people on our products and creating a well rounded experience when they receive goods from us
Fund Translation Projects
We directly fund critical translation initiatives, training a new generation of translators to make ancient Buddhist wisdom and texts accessible to all.
Support monasteries
Your purchases provide direct funding to sustain monastic centers in India, as well as their communities- especially young children from marginalized communities whose parents are not able to care for them.
Empower Artisans
By ethically sourcing, we provide fair livelihoods and help preserve the traditional craftsmanship of skilled artisans, with a focus on hiring women struggling to support their families.
Meet the Team
Jack Langdale, Director of Operations
Jack joined The Overseas Study Program as a student in 2022, and has since helped grow the program. He has an entrepreneurial background and has helped start multiple businesses. Jack is studying Tibetan translation and Buddhist philosophy, and helps to organize our education programs and cultural immersion trips in India and Nepal. His dream is to connect students with all the different Dharma traditions through translation and travel, and to help people find a well rounded comprehensive understanding of Buddhism.
Rebecca Vinacour, Executive Director
Rebecca began studying Buddhism when she was still an undergraduate at New York University. She started the Overseas Study Program in 2005 and has since sent more than 60 students to study Tibetan language and Buddhism in South India. When she's not busy fundraising for OSP or traveling throughout India and Nepal to find the best products for Dakini Goods, you can find her teaching dharma, making friends with local street dogs around the world, and developing projects for television and film in Hollywood.
SOME OF OUR PARTNERS
www.overseasprogram.org
www.blueskyfriends.org
https://www.serameymonastery.org/
www.dolmadogrescue.org/our-needs
Our partners all have one thing in a common- a drive to make the world a better place. The Asian Classics Institute makes the foundational, profound, and transformational teachings of the Buddha available to the world in an accurate, accessible and relevant way.
Blue Sky Friends is an international collective of compassionate individuals dedicated to supporting those who are aging, nearing the end of life, and grieving the loss of a loved one, as well as the grief associated with other life situations.
Diamond Cutter Classics is devoted to the translation, preservation and dissemination of ancient wisdom into the modern world in a way that is relevant, accessible, and accurate.
Dolma Dog Rescue rescues stray dogs in need of medical treatment and care in Bylakuppe, a Tibetan settlement in South India.DDR is now a safe haven for more than 100 dogs and also provides care for dogs from local residents’ homes of Bylakuppe area.