About Tearfund
Who We Are
Join a biblically driven non-profit community, focused on facing the challenges of poverty and injustice through God’s love.
Core Values
Follow Jesus
We engage in study, prayer and discernment to follow Christ where He leads and the need is greatest.
Church-Based
Tearfund is committed to the local church of the Global South. Overseas relief and development programs are implemented through church partners wherever possible.
Holistic
Poverty, and people, are more than economics. Our aim is to help the poor thrive across all facets of life – physical, social, emotional, and spiritual.
Collaborative
We listen to national leaders and communities to facilitate their God-given abilities, resources and dreams, matching these with appropriate and proven support.
Long-Term
We build capacity and ownership in local communities to facilitate long-term sustainable change as well as short-term results. We are future thinking – considering what is best for the people, community, and environment.
Maximizing Impact
We strive to utilize the skills and resources that God has given us to achieve effective, quality results.
Tearfund exists to equip the local church to put an end to poverty
To put an end to poverty, we must understand what it is. We believe it is more than economics. Tearfund believes that poverty is rooted in broken relationships – with God, with one another, with creation, and even within ourselves.
Our unique church-based approach mobilizes, trains, and equips local churches to be catalysts for change within their own communities. Helping them meet the immense physical and spiritual needs around them and bring true transformation to their communities.
The Reality of Poverty Today
In a world of crisis upon crisis, poverty is growing more complex and urgent. Learn why Tearfund exists and why your partnership makes a difference in the fight against poverty.
Our Programs
Church Mobilization
We train and equip churches so that they can reach out beyond their walls and meet the immense physical and spiritual needs around them.
Food Security
We train farmers in simple, cost-effective farming, that help them grow significantly more food and feed their families.
Poverty Alleviation
Through savings groups and business training, we help families build equity, access capital, start new businesses, and climb out of poverty.
Trauma Healing
In places of war and instability, rape and sexual violence is all too common. Our Biblically-based trauma healing programs help restore survivors while encouraging societal change.
Climate Adaptation
A changing climate is pushing millions into poverty. Through land restoration, water management, tree planting, and climate-smart agriculture, we help farming families adapt to a new reality and thrive.
Emergency Relief
When disaster strikes, we rush in; providing emergency food, water, shelter, and other necessities to those in most need.
Reconciliation with Canada's First Nations
Motivated by the love Jesus, we work towards reconciliation with Canada’s First Nations, building trust and restoring relations.
Tearfund Canada works strategically in a small number of countries to achieve maximum impact. When disaster strikes, we are able to respond anywhere in the world through our partnerships with Canadian Foodgrains Bank and Tearfund Family.
Countries we work in:
• Ethiopia
• Kenya
• Tanzania
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• South Sudan
• India
• Canada
Called into existence by the church.
Called to serve with the church.
Tearfund’s roots trace back to the 1970’s when a group of pastors came together to encourage Canadian churches to respond to the immense need of the Ethiopian famine. Their vision was clear: to be the hands and feet of Jesus to those in dire need.
Today our heart remains the same. By giving to Tearfund, you are joining with brothers and sisters across Canada, and the world, committed to serving the poor in the name of Jesus.
Our Global Network
When you partner with Tearfund Canada, you are joining a global family committed to ending physical and spiritual poverty. We are proud to be a part of the greater Tearfund Family, comprised of 9 members who collectively implement $250 million worth of programs each year. Together, we partner with 250 church-based organizations in over 50 countries around the world.
Member countries: Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom
International partners
Tearfund Canada serves communities regardless of religion, ethnicity, gender, or background.
Our programs are open to all people without discrimination.
Excel and Propel
We’ve set bold goals — aiming to reach 400,000 people between 2025 and 2028.
Our new strategic plan lays out how we’ll get there. Shaped by in-depth research, honest reflection, and prayerful discernment, it captures our vision as a faith-driven organization partnering with the local church to bring lasting, holistic change to the most vulnerable.
Key Success Metrics that will help us to know if we are on track to achieving our 2028 BHAG
Tearfund Canada has set a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) of 400,000 people to sustainably break free from poverty.
Management & Board
Tearfund Canada is managed and governed by women and men who are passionate about seeing God glorified and an end to extreme poverty. Our team consists of individuals from different walks of life who possess varying skill sets and God-given gifts.
Management
Board of Directors
Financial Accountability
Tearfund Canada exists to provide relief and development assistance to the world’s most oppressed, poor, and suffering people by partnering with churches and other Christian agencies and organizations. We trust God for our finances. Our operations depend on the generosity of individuals, churches, foundations, businesses, as well as contracts from Global Affairs Canada and through Canadian Foodgrains Bank.