Sponsor a Child

A question about : Sponsor a Child

Not really money saving as I want to give some away.

I'm looking at the various charities that do 'sponsor a child'.

Does anyone know which is best, or have any tips?

I'm looking at the amount of money that actually gets to the area in need (varies from 75-85p in each pound so far - smaller charities it seems to be more so I guess the big ones aren't run so efficiently).

Also, the ones that are Christian charities, are they forcing Christianity on the kids? I know a lot of poor areas are Christian anyway, but I'm not religious myself and I don't agree with views being imposed on anyone in that way.

I also know that regular donations to charities which then help lots of kids may be 'better', but it's a selfish thing of liking the idea of one individual beign helped. It's easier to picture.

Best answers:

• try actionaid as a start: www.actionaid.org
  This one does work well.
• Do you specifically want it to be children in the UK or are u looking at developing countries as well??
• I have heard it is not cost effective as for every child information will have to be provided plus you have to be contacted to be told what is going on which costs some money.
• It's quite natural to want to see the help going to one person, but do consider that there are natural costs involved in keeping donors up to date with how things are going.
  Smaller charities sometimes need less stringent accounting and governance which keeps costs down. Statistically, the charities with the lowest costs as a percentage are the upper middle sized ones. Small ones still need to pay for things, so their costs are a big chunk of their overall spending, big giant ones spend a little more maintaining systems, keeping their donors involved and looking to long term funding.
  Regular donations by direct debit / deed of covenant are best, keeps the charities costs down, and gives them regular income. Gift Aid it if you're eligible too.
• Thanks for the info, and I will bear in mind the costs associated with sending info back to sponsors etc...
  I'd seen Action Aid's website and was quite impressed.
  I was looking specifically at developing countries, but am open to anything really.
  One that I did like was SOS Children's Villages:
  https://www.soschildrensvillages.org....en-charity.htm
  They run children's villages for orphaned kids (AIDS, war, poverty etc). With regular donations you can opt to sponsor a child, or a village (obviously each village has many sponsors). You get an annual update about the village, including some photos etc. That to me seemed like a nice compromise - it's not going to be too onerous or costly to produce an annual update, and from the site it looks like they're doing good work.
  Does anyone know anything more about them?
• Try www.childrenwalkingtall.com
  I can vouch for them and know that small amounts really can make a huge difference to these children
• Christian Aid does not do sponsorships as they believe they are a waste of money.
• We sponser with PLAN as they are a secular charity and don't shove any religion down anyones throat! They work in many third world countries and we sponser a little boy in Zimbabwe-we get lovely letters from him and my children love reading the update we get about his village and family each year. Never read anything bad about them and we did lots of research-would recommend. Good luck!
• Another vote for plan here! We sponsered a little boy in Tansania from the age of 3 to age 10. I've had a change in circumstances and have had to give it up but would recommend them.
  Rosie
• It is important to recognise that responsible child sponsorship should be done in the context of programmes benefiting the whole community where the children live. Imagine the resentment, if you had six children and your rich uncle in America only sent Christmas presents to one of them.
  Other people benefit as well from child sponsorship. I had a girlfriend in Nicaragua in the 1980's who worked in an office with about 20 translators doing the letters for child sponsors.
• Hi
  If you're looking at smaller charities, how about this one in Tanzania:
  www.foreverangels.org
  I am going out there in October for 6 weeks as a volunteer, and I'm trying to get people to sponsor the children.
  £8 a month would cover a child's medical expenses including childhood immunisations.
  £15 a month would feed a child for one month.
  £35 a month would pay a nurse's salary to care for the children.
  £75 a month would cover the cost of total care for one child for a month
  However, any amount you give, no matter how small, would be a fantastic help.
  Just remember in most cases whilst you are sponsoring a particular child, the money won't go directly to that child but to the care of all the children for that charity (in the above case there are only about 35 children anyway)
• This is a charity which is run near where I live
  www.thequickentrust.com
  It's run by a married couple, Geoff and Geraldine Booker. They do great work out in the Ugandan village of Kabubbu. I've done a lot with them through my work. They've put over 1000 children through school and have just build a kitchen to give hundreds of children a porridge breakfast before school. They would otherwise go hungry till dinner.
• SOS Children's Villages (non denominational organisation) makes sure 100% of sponsorship goes to support the children sponsored. They are working with children from a variety of backgrounds (AIDS orphans, street children, child soldiers and were heavily involved in Pakistan earthquake relief as well as tsunami. As well as the children's villages over one million children and adults are helped in the community.
  More details about their sponsorship can be found here
  https://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/sponsor-a-child/
  Hope that helps.
• Oldtoolie has a very good point - I wouldn't give to a charity that only helped one child in a community. It must be very divisive. I would only give where the money supports community projects. If individual children want to keep in touch with sponsors then fine, but this should still be possible.
• Hiya
  There is a list of childrens charities here:
  https://www.mycharitypage.com/charities.php
  Hope thats useful
• Hello, i too am of the opinion that the sponsorship money does not all go to the child. I know in some shape or form this is true even if you just make a donation to a charity, these are costs for various things. All charities (well major ones definalty) have to publish their accounts annually, so even though it may be a boring job you would have the option to look to see which charity gives the most to the cause and the less to the admin.side of things. Good luck!
• Just to add to Tigwell, you can find the charities accouns at the charity commission website, but PLEASE PLEASE remember that admin costs are not a bad thing.
  If there's no money spent on 'admin', then how do they recruit the staff to go abroad to assess the needs fo the kids,/ find the kids that need help? Or pay the salaries of these staff? or deal with their national insurance and payroll work? or get their work visas arranged, deal with requests, answer your questions or publish their annual accounts, to name but a few.
  if a charity has no admin costs then how on earth can it keep running?
• many of the childrens charities in the developing countries depend largly on volunteers, so staff wages are generally minimal.
  If u go to the childrenwalkingtall website there is a needs section that details what u could donate your money for, such as bags of rice, medicines,fruit etc etc. This way u know where your money is going and know that its not being swallowed up in general costs.
  Fresh fruit is taken to the children in the slums daily, so people could donate a small amount for a days fruit. just an example.
  U could also donate money for the children to have a trip to the beach for the day, something they do not usually get to do and they absolutely love it, Children walking tall beach days are legendary!! enjoyed by volunteeers as much as the children!!
• Hello,
  I myself run a child sponsorship scheme through Robin Hood Ministries. We are a small not for profit christian organisation, not only dealing in child sponsorship, but sponsorship of projects. please visit the website www.robinhoodministries.org . Our child sponsorship costs Ј20.00 per month, 66p per day, but the whole of the 20.00 goes to the child at the project they are based in. We partner with small organisations based in romania, Tanzania, Nepal and India. They are christian organisations, but like us at RHM we "promote" our christianity through our works. however, if the people we work with want to know more of christianity, then the subject would be approached. We are there to raise awareness of poverty and help them become self sustainable.
  I hope this has given you a flavour of our charity. We are small and operate with only a few paid staff and the rest are volunteers.
  I hope to hear again from you
  best Regards