In addition to the $38 per month sponsorship there are several ways to financially support your child or Compassion International as a whole.
Gifts for your sponsored child
-Special Child Gift (including birthday): able to give $10-$100 per year
-Family Gift: able to give $25-$1000 per year
-Center Gifts (given to the center your child attends): able to give $100-$2000 per year
-Graduation Gifts (when your child graduates from the program): $10-$2000
Other ways to donate
There a wealth of options and they fall into a couple of categories. I will go into each of these programs and initiatives at a later date but for now I'll provide links so if you are interested you can learn more or donate. One quick word about donations, they are tax-deductible and are in no way binding. If you donate once you are not obligated to donate again.
1. The CSP and LDP
Do you want to help babies and mothers? The Child Survival Program is right for you.
Do you want to help young adults go to college and become leaders in their communities? The Leadership Development Program is right for you.
2. Medical Initiatives
Do you want to help prevent, treat, and rehabilitate those affected by HIV/AIDS? The AIDS Initiative is right for you.
Do you want to give mosquito nets, educate, and treat those affected by Malaria? The Bite Back Imitative is right for you.
Do you want to help kids with medical emergencies that require additional assistance? The Medical Assistance Fund is right for you.
3. Educational Needs
Do you want to help develop and distribute appropriate academic curriculums for the projects? The Children's Curriculum Development Fund is for you.
Do you want to help educate parents? The Health and Parenting Skills Fund is for you.
Do you want to help pay children's school fees? The Education and School Fees Fund is for you.
4. Disaster Relief and Stability
Do you want to help provide relief when disaster strikes? The Disaster Relief Fund is for you.
Do you want to help provide clean water? The Water of Life Program is for you.
Do you want to provide teens or caregivers business training? The Microenterprise & Income Generation Fund is for you.
Do you want to repair homes or projects? The Infrastructure Development Fund is for you.
Do you want to help and give assistance to highly vulnerable children? The Vulnerable Children Fund is for you.
5. Other
Do you want to help kids that don't have sponsors yet? The Unsponsored Children's Fund is for you.
Do you want to help people and churches that are committed to helping children at any time? The Partners of Compassion Fund is for you.
Are you overwhelmed and have no idea where to donate but want to help?
Never fear the Where Most Needed Fund is here!
Further explanation of all of these programs and initiatives and fund will come but in the meantime, check out the Compassion website for more information, call Compassion, or ask me!
Showing posts with label financial support. Show all posts
Showing posts with label financial support. Show all posts
Monday, October 8, 2012
Where does my money go?
Last week I talked about the three main aspects of sponsorship (financial, social, and spiritual support) and this week I'm going to talk about these three aspects in more depth. First off we're going to talk about the financial support and where your money goes.
It can be somewhat nerve-wracking to give money to an organization if you aren't entirely sure where your money is going and that your money is being used for the correct reasons. We all know there are plenty of fraud schemes out there and non-reputable organizations but I can attest to the fact that Compassion International is not one of them.
On the Compassion website, there is a page devoted to the financial integrity of Compassion. What does this mean? It means that Compassion puts right up front where your money goes and how the money is spent. There is a wealth of information available here including Annual reports, Auditor reports, and annual 900 forms.
As a brief overview, here's where money went in the 2010-2011 fiscal year taken directly from the Compassion website.
Every month as a sponsor you are responsible for giving $38. (There are several payment options that I discussed last week and if you have any questions please ask me or call Compassion). The obvious question then is How much of my money actually goes to my sponsored child? The answer is about 82%.
You are allowed to send monetary birthday gifts and other special monetary gifts at your discretion. How much of this goes to my sponsor child? The answer is that it is given to the country office and 100% goes directly to your child and/or his/her family to purchase a gift.
You are allowed to send monetary Christmas gifts. How much of this goes to my sponsor child? For this it's a little hard to tell because all of the Christmas gifts go into a large pool so every child in the program (sponsored and unsponsored) can receive a gift at Christmas. From my memory each child ends up getting about $20-25 to spend on Christmas gifts.
You are allowed to donate to other funds and initatives (to be discussed in the next post). How much of this goes to what I donated to? The answer is the same as sponsorship, 82%.
Up next will be an overview of where you can donate your money (other than the regular sponsorship). Questions? Check out the Compassion website, call Compassion, or ask me!
It can be somewhat nerve-wracking to give money to an organization if you aren't entirely sure where your money is going and that your money is being used for the correct reasons. We all know there are plenty of fraud schemes out there and non-reputable organizations but I can attest to the fact that Compassion International is not one of them.
On the Compassion website, there is a page devoted to the financial integrity of Compassion. What does this mean? It means that Compassion puts right up front where your money goes and how the money is spent. There is a wealth of information available here including Annual reports, Auditor reports, and annual 900 forms.
As a brief overview, here's where money went in the 2010-2011 fiscal year taken directly from the Compassion website.
Every month as a sponsor you are responsible for giving $38. (There are several payment options that I discussed last week and if you have any questions please ask me or call Compassion). The obvious question then is How much of my money actually goes to my sponsored child? The answer is about 82%.
You are allowed to send monetary birthday gifts and other special monetary gifts at your discretion. How much of this goes to my sponsor child? The answer is that it is given to the country office and 100% goes directly to your child and/or his/her family to purchase a gift.
You are allowed to send monetary Christmas gifts. How much of this goes to my sponsor child? For this it's a little hard to tell because all of the Christmas gifts go into a large pool so every child in the program (sponsored and unsponsored) can receive a gift at Christmas. From my memory each child ends up getting about $20-25 to spend on Christmas gifts.
You are allowed to donate to other funds and initatives (to be discussed in the next post). How much of this goes to what I donated to? The answer is the same as sponsorship, 82%.
Up next will be an overview of where you can donate your money (other than the regular sponsorship). Questions? Check out the Compassion website, call Compassion, or ask me!
Thursday, October 4, 2012
I'm sponsoring a child, now what?
I'm going to assume that LOTS of people are new sponsors seeing as over 3000 children were sponsored last month. If you're not a sponsor and want to be a sponsor go here.
So now you're sponsoring a child. The picture and information about the child has come in the mail. I sent in my first payment. What happens now?
There are three main aspects of sponsorship: financial support, social support, spiritual support. Don't worry, it's really easy and really fun.
1. Financial support is perhaps the most obvious. Every month $38 needs to be paid. There is some flexibility with this. You can mail money every month (although this is not preferred). You can pay online every month (it is a very safe transaction). Or you can arrange to have Compassion take the proper amount of money out of your account for you every month (so you don't have to do a thing!) There is also some flexibility for paying every month. For example, it's easier for my family to pay quarterly (once every three months, or four times a year) so we pay a larger sum then instead of individually each month. This does not harm the child in any way.
In addition to the monthly payments there are other ways you can help your child and his/her family as well. You are allowed to send monetary birthday gifts (gifts will be bought for them in country). You are allowed to send monetary Christmas gifts. The Christmas gifts go into a large pool of all of the monetary gifts received from sponsors and donors. This money is divided equally among every single child in the entire Compassion program (those that have sponsors and those that do not) so every single child gets a gift. Finally, you can give individual and family gifts.
If you know there is a specific need in the family (or even if you don't and just want to give them a little extra help) you can send up to $1000 throughout the year of family gifts. When you give these gifts you can indicate what the money should be used for if you have a preference (for example school supplies, clothes, a guitar, a bike, a new stove, etc.) If no preference is given the money will be used for whatever the family needs the most.
2. Social support involves writing letters and developing a relationship with the child. I will talk more about letter writing because of how vital it is but I want to try and stress right now how important this is to the child. Many children don't fully understand what a sponsor is and what their sponsor does until they get the letters. For many of the children, your letters of love and support are the only forms of love and support they receive. I don't know if that upsets people the way it does me, but I find it incredibly sad to think that there are children in the world that do not feel loved, do not feel important, do not feel supported, needed, or that their dreams can come true. You can be the one that gives them the hope and the love that they so desperately want.
Again, I'll talk more about letter-writing in the near future including tips of what to write about and the kinds of things you can send in the mail. I'll even give an example of a recent letter I wrote to my sponsor child, Isadora, and my correspondent child, Guerby.
A quick word about correspondent children and what that means. If you are unable to write for whatever reason (church/business/group sponsorship, dislike letter writing, "not a good writer", "no time", etc.) then I strongly encourage you to ask Compassion to wave your letter-writing privilege and assign your child a correspondent. You would continue to financially sponsor your child and hear updates but someone else would socially support your child. I'll talk more about this at a later time too.
3. Spiritual support involves praying for your child. Pray for them and their safety, school, health, security, friendships, family, spiritual growth, happiness, anything and everything! Rest assured that your child is praying for you too! :)
I'll go into more detail into each of these topics in the coming days. If you have any questions about sponsorship or anything related to Compassion International please feel free to ask me in the comments and I will do my best to help. Otherwise, please feel free to call Compassion representative ((800) 336-7676, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. MT.)
So now you're sponsoring a child. The picture and information about the child has come in the mail. I sent in my first payment. What happens now?
There are three main aspects of sponsorship: financial support, social support, spiritual support. Don't worry, it's really easy and really fun.
1. Financial support is perhaps the most obvious. Every month $38 needs to be paid. There is some flexibility with this. You can mail money every month (although this is not preferred). You can pay online every month (it is a very safe transaction). Or you can arrange to have Compassion take the proper amount of money out of your account for you every month (so you don't have to do a thing!) There is also some flexibility for paying every month. For example, it's easier for my family to pay quarterly (once every three months, or four times a year) so we pay a larger sum then instead of individually each month. This does not harm the child in any way.
In addition to the monthly payments there are other ways you can help your child and his/her family as well. You are allowed to send monetary birthday gifts (gifts will be bought for them in country). You are allowed to send monetary Christmas gifts. The Christmas gifts go into a large pool of all of the monetary gifts received from sponsors and donors. This money is divided equally among every single child in the entire Compassion program (those that have sponsors and those that do not) so every single child gets a gift. Finally, you can give individual and family gifts.
If you know there is a specific need in the family (or even if you don't and just want to give them a little extra help) you can send up to $1000 throughout the year of family gifts. When you give these gifts you can indicate what the money should be used for if you have a preference (for example school supplies, clothes, a guitar, a bike, a new stove, etc.) If no preference is given the money will be used for whatever the family needs the most.
2. Social support involves writing letters and developing a relationship with the child. I will talk more about letter writing because of how vital it is but I want to try and stress right now how important this is to the child. Many children don't fully understand what a sponsor is and what their sponsor does until they get the letters. For many of the children, your letters of love and support are the only forms of love and support they receive. I don't know if that upsets people the way it does me, but I find it incredibly sad to think that there are children in the world that do not feel loved, do not feel important, do not feel supported, needed, or that their dreams can come true. You can be the one that gives them the hope and the love that they so desperately want.
Again, I'll talk more about letter-writing in the near future including tips of what to write about and the kinds of things you can send in the mail. I'll even give an example of a recent letter I wrote to my sponsor child, Isadora, and my correspondent child, Guerby.
A quick word about correspondent children and what that means. If you are unable to write for whatever reason (church/business/group sponsorship, dislike letter writing, "not a good writer", "no time", etc.) then I strongly encourage you to ask Compassion to wave your letter-writing privilege and assign your child a correspondent. You would continue to financially sponsor your child and hear updates but someone else would socially support your child. I'll talk more about this at a later time too.
3. Spiritual support involves praying for your child. Pray for them and their safety, school, health, security, friendships, family, spiritual growth, happiness, anything and everything! Rest assured that your child is praying for you too! :)
I'll go into more detail into each of these topics in the coming days. If you have any questions about sponsorship or anything related to Compassion International please feel free to ask me in the comments and I will do my best to help. Otherwise, please feel free to call Compassion representative ((800) 336-7676, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. MT.)
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