This is from the time period of Jun 1, 2015 through June 30,2016. e.Resourcefulness Your child will be told the gift is from you and will receive it at a special Christmas celebration. This is why you received some conflicting information regarding time frames for your letters. -key life skills training and vocational programs to provide a brighter future Click here to search for this organization's Forms 990 on the IRS website (if any are available). We sincerely look forward to earning your trust and proving our hearts for serving our sponsors and children with excellence. to describe their surroundings. If you have any additional questions or concerns, you are welcome to email us at [emailprotected]. Here is a link to all of our alumni blogs, What if I dont write to my sponsored child? Among U.S. charitable organizations, Compassion International is one of the best charities around. If you have any questions please email our team at [emailprotected] and we will be happy to help! I dont know what youve included in your packages but unless its paper, it didnt go thru. The letters continued to show that the children writing them had not seen my letters and knew nothing about me. If you do give big financial gifts youll often get a pic of what the kid bought with the money. She caught my eye because I had recently read a book Behind the Beautiful Forevers about people who live around a sewage lake in Mumbai. https://blog.compassion.com/tag/emilda-soriano/. I fully believe you will be greatly encouraged. This child might be in high school whereby in east Africa we say Senior five (S.5) yet in the USA and other Countries it would be High School. Thank you all I loved reading all your stories, God bless all of you and especially the childrenJesus loves them all. Also, while I know Compassion well, I am not an expert on all organizations and the intricacies. The rest of the gift goes to Faith, and a worker from the center will help her and the family decide how they are going to use it. When I click on it it just tells me in translationwell maybe id like to see it in his natural written language!!! And do not judge me for what I have said. If 6 months passes and a sponsor has not received a letter from their child, we will send a notification to the childs project to determine why the child has not written. Sent money for a Christmas Gift, received a letter from the child but no mention of a gift. Children under the age of 9 typically use our form letters because it is easier for them to understand the concept of writing and to fill in the blanks. I, for one, am always excited to get mail from my child, too, and try to write back. For example, he said that he finished the first semester of College and that he was on vacation with his family. We have recently changed our letter writing process, as well. I have reduced the amount of mail that will be coming to your address. Charity Ratings | Donating Tips | Best Charities | CharityWatch We are committed to send at least 80% of sponsors donations to the childrens care. Keep encouraging her. If my child is legitimate and my donations are going towards assisting the family , praise the lord . I was just wondering, I sent books marks to my children in Ethiopia and Nicaragua last year for Christmas but they were taken out and I was told Compassion will not deliver the metal bookmarks and my sending the bookmarks to them will not be included in the translation. We are a child-development ministry dedicated to. This year has been so hard on everyone! Therefore, we protect, develop, and deploy all of our resources (people, time, money, knowledge, reputation and materials) with great care and wisdom. In order to develop quality staff at Compassion while at the same time managing our financial resources with great care and wisdom, Compassion offers competitive salaries for the various positions necessary to successfully execute Compassions mission statement. Ask questions. I cried. No: This charity either does not have a written donor privacy policy in place to protect their contributors' personal information, or the existing policy does not meet our criteria. Also, in the past, many of our translators were volunteers. We have the opportunity for donors to give to different funds such as income generation for families, donating livestock, or classes on health and parenting skills. Their letters seem very genuine and are full of personal details about their families, friends, pets, school and activities. My child was in the 4th grade 5 years ago. Good morning, Terry! However, any letter you write online should automatically send a confirmation email with the text of your letter included as soon as you submit it. Often at smaller charities, it falls within the responsibilities of the finance committee or the executive committee.) I have never doubted my hard-earned money given for child sponsorship was well-spent! Our policy also does not require that a thank you letter be sent for the final graduation gift. I was kinda sad upon hearing this, but I proceeded to ask my neighbor the birthdays of her two boys and she didnt know! Hi everyone, I am a person who accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior on Easter Sunday 2009 In Aug. of 2009 I was trying to find a Bible verse online when I saw an ad for Compassion International so I click on the ad began reading about Compassion International and how they help children in other countries with the problems of living in poverty. Source: IRS Form 990 (page 7), filing year 2019, Below are some key data points from the Exempt Organization IRS Business Master File (BMF) for this organization. Compassions2016-2017 990 form shows our CEO, Santiago Jimmy Mellados reportable compensation from theministry as $340,940 which is well below other ministrieswithin this same field. What a blessing that you want to partner with Compassion and sponsor a child in a country you are able to visit! Very frustrated. I need a way to help kids and this is my favorite way to do it. Regrettably, our processing team is experiencing a significant backlog which has caused a delay in taking care of new sponsorships. During that time, I have sponsored as many as 8 children at once. But as one external reviewer pointed out, they have on occasion misapplied and applied inconsistently the heuritics they use to judge organizations. [14], Sponsors are able to visit their sponsored children through trips planned by Compassion International. You may always email me, Susan, and Emily at [emailprotected] any time you have concerns. Set up your online account. I encourage you to not become weary in your letter writing to your sweet boy, because all the love you are pouring into his life will certainly reap a harvest (Galatians 6:9)! Heres the financials chart used by Ministry Watch so you can see how Compassions numbers line up with other organizations: Industry average vs. Compassion: We want to rectify this situation and ensure we have accurate information on your boy. God Bless I am able to send inquiries when it has been longer than six months since you last heard from your children. Am I expecting too much? He told me that the head office of Compassion in Kenya was ran by the very men and women that were once sponsor children themselves. I have received the most precious gift children can share with others and that gift is LOVE!! Dividing a charity's average fundraising expenses by its average total functional expenses yields this percentage. I am very interested in sponsoring a child, but dont understand why the CEO is paid so much. [27] The Ministry of External Affairs later stated that the ban had nothing to do with the ideology of Compassion International.[28]. It makes me sad to see so many comments of people ending their commitments to the children they sponsor. [19], In 2013, a primary research report in the Journal of Political Economy provided evidence in support of the conclusion that child sponsorship via Compassion International resulted in significant positive outcomes for the children in the study set. As an ESOL teacher (in the US), Ive also found that to be true. I am grateful to the musician that came to my town and told me about compassion. Have no idea what it was used for or if they even received it. However if you want to send money around christmas to your child and her family, just send it as a family or child gift and it will go to them. However, at this time, with so many children in the program and the limited staff and funding we have for this, it just is not possible. I called again today to inquire about my little Lydias letter, which has said in translation to me since 6-2. I have been sponsoring my child since January 2016. Hi Barbara! The Colorado Springs-based nonprofit organization is ranked number eight in the report's list of 100 top fundraising charities in the United States, up from number 11 in 2019. Ive been a child sponsor for 30 years. Imagine how generous sponsors would be if they knew what they were doing was going directly to that child!! Yes, donations made to Compassion are tax deductible. We understand that some may feel uneasy about the salaries of our upper management and board of directors. We have put measures in place to make sure that these goals are being accomplished. We're committed to the highest standards of financial integrity and accountability, only using money for the purpose it was raised, regularly performing audits to ensure our programs are well managed and funds are properly disbursed and applied and balancing low administrative and fundraising costs with high-quality programs. No Credit: There has been a diversion of assets within the last two years and the charity's explanation on Schedule O is either non-existent or not sufficient. This maybe necessary but the expensive restaurants first class hotels and bar bills should be questioned. Sponsored children are selected by the sponsors from lists provided by the ministry, and two-way communication is encouraged between the sponsored child and the sponsor. I know this because I have been one for over 20 years now. In a previous post it was said that 10% of all gifts is used for processing and something else, but here it says the child receives 100%. Successfully intervening for them requires holistic care, which is why our child development model addresses the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs of each child. So now my concern is that, if his situation involves abuse by his mother (or her death), my letters will be depressing instead of encouraging and uplifting. Because of this, they might tell you an update in a letter that we havent received information about from our field staff quite yet. Compassion International Their sponsor is the only person they write letters to. . I havent heard from my child for almost 10 months! Dear Vicki, I was on the fence about selecting a child to sponsor but your letter and hearing about your faithfulness for 14 years with this organization and the children has made up my mind to take a chance and sponsor a child! Please see our other post about our new letter guidelines and why we are scanning, sending letters digitally, and printing them on the other end. Please explain. If someone has been burned before, they look for faults in everything the letters from the child they sponsor, the pictures we send them, the way we use the funds we receive. . I have been asked twice to up my giving. Please email me at [emailprotected] with your sponsor number as I relish the chance to be able to research this situation and set it right. I asked myself how they were going to provide clean water for a childs family if there wasnt enough money to spend for the entire village. They are so excited to get letters from their sponsors the letters are precious to them. Only after dealing with these few scams, then we will be there, joining hands to congratulate them! I was told you could not buy items specifically for your chosen child was that it wouldnt be fair to the other kids so they always divided up the money however it was grouped and bought things for the kids that way. First time logging in? This means that your letter was written on September 3 and not March 9, which would make sense as a first letter if you started in July. Please know that while some people feel our CEO makes more than he should, our ministry is committed to the children we serve and your donations truly do make a difference. Do you recall if you received this one? Ive been happily sponsoring children through Compassion and I can attest to the positive changes I have seen in my children. Thank you so much for your faithful partnership in loving and supporting a girl in Haiti! Your gift was such a blessing to his project, and I cannot wait for you to hear just how grateful they are for you! I am not being simply verbally courteous to say I love this organization called Compassion International. We appreciate you and please let me know if I can assist you further! [27] Compassion refused to do so as it would be a misuse of funds entrusted to them by donors all around the world. Continue Reading Share this post: Thats embarrassing. Once the gift is received, a thank you letter will always be written and sent to their sponsor. See our 2018 Annual Report to see where your money goes. Im sure having to add something specific about each child would be a burden, in a project serving 350-400 children, or even 200. I have been aware all of my life of the conditions in which some children throughout the world find themselves in, and this organization gave me the means to pick one child and tell them I love them and care about them with my entire being, and back up those words by means of prayer and financial assistance. I feel that until I see Compassion International take this step, I will hold my giving as it is. She doesnt seem to have gotten any of our letters and knows nothing about our family. We appreciate your grace and patience as we move over to a new system together. Emilys reply to you, below, is very good, and I hope you will follow through on her request. Starting to question the process. So Do We. Compassion was transparent i was able to view kids files where they carefully document correspondence back & forth as well as gifts purchased when sponsors send extra money (ie: birthdays, Christmas, etc.) However, other children dont have any interest in writing to their sponsor, or they do when theyre younger but then lose interest as they become older. (Their priority programs include condom promotion and distribution, anti-retroviral therapy for people with HIV/AIDS, surgeries for surgery-correctable conditions, mass drug administration to control river blindness, etc.) I hope that I can be as loyal and a blessing to someone else! Partial Credit: The charity's audited financials were prepared by an independent accountant, but it did not have an audit oversight committee. Many children dont make it to their fifth birthday in impoverished countries and so the birthday is not held as valuable because whats important is seeing to it that the child makes it through the first few years of life. By the way, you are welcome to post here, email [emailprotected], or call 800-336-7676 with any concerns or questions you have. Hi Christie, I am so sorry that you havent heard from Farel in a long time. Compassion International is a Christian non-profit that helps children in poverty by providing spiritual, educational, social and physical assistance. Lots of inconsistencies are emerging. You are welcome to send us an email at [emailprotected] if you would like to speak further with us. [7] In 2019, Mellado's annual compensation was $419,184 according to the organization's IRS filings. I want to encourage you that your child is very real and that you truly are making an incredible difference in his life. The only gifts that we combine are Christmas Gifts. The IRS is significantly delayed in processing nonprofits' annual tax filings (Forms 990). I get a letter that says a gift was purchased for Susi and the rest of the money was put into a fund to buy gifts for other children. They say these letters are from our sponsored child, but with what I received, thats not possible. Our center staff do an excellent job teaching the children to write letters; however, the children in our programs primarily communicate verbally. I have recently started writing online to eliminate the paper. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns. Be assured that Compassion remains committed to stewarding your gifts with sound fiscal management, accountability and transparency with you and always with the children as our first priority! I pray that the Lord shows you what a beautiful difference youre making in the lives of the children you pour into. I totally understand your frustration and as I sponsor myself Ive questioned almost everything over the years but ive gotten answers to most of them. Hell be thrilled to hear from you and get to know you. Am sure there are many others with similar testimonies. You are correct that if you send a gift of $60 or more, a picture of the child will be taken and sent to you, as well. On letter writing days, the staff put suggestions for topics and questions on the board for the kids to write to their sponsors. You can visit our website at https://www.compassion.com/about/financial.htm and view our tax documents that lists the specific information on our Upper management and Board of Directors salaries. I pray this isnt a scam . She was 12 at the time so that would make her 22 now. I did check your account and confirmed that you did send Eferem a generous Christmas gift. Letters are important. We certainly want to ensure youre receiving these. The phone representative put me on hold for awhile to try and help me and said that hopefully I will have access to that letter sometime next week. We leverage finance and accountability data from it to form Encompass ratings. Let us remember He is our provider and our redeemer. Yes, I think so but dont just take my word for it. How much you wanna bet she spends more money on sponsored children than you do and you supposedly work for the company. Sadly, Ill be giving up sponsorship to Compassion UK in February 2014. I know you miss him, as I feel the same way about my girls in Bolivia, but the good news is that Gadiel is still writing to you. -clean drinking water Gift Catalog; My . So that our field staff can better assist you, can you please send us a copy of the letter you received? Our own kids are of similar age which makes it great for them too to see the letters. Current Assets Turnover Ratio: 4.916 vs. 5.376. Then when it came time to send money for the family, or village gifts. Cart ID: Not Assigned, Copyright 2023 | EIN 13-4148824 | Bridge ID 3108588923. Dividing a charity's average administrative expenses by its average total functional expenses yields this percentage. -Shannon. You indicated that the goal of the program included supporting the child until they are able to support themselves. From the booklet we picked up when we decided to sponsor, to the info we received in the Welcome Package, to the info it had on the CI app, we believed our sponsor child was born in 2010. Since this is a very generous gift we want sponsors to be able to see how the gift was spent. The question of trustworthiness goes beyond financial accountability. One thing could be imnporved upon, with modern day tech it is so easy to take videos and photos, we would like to see more photos of the real life improvements that Compassion bring to these kids around the world. Disclosure Statement, Compassion International, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We also recently sent out regional newsletters with updated information about your childs country! View similar charities It may seem far-fetched to our culture where time is so fixed, but it is reality for so many people! My husband and I sponsor 2 children. AM BEING SPONSORED BY COMPASSION KENYA.THEY HAVE BEEN SPONSORING ME SINCE 1998,RIGHT NOW,AM IN UNIVERSITY AND COMPASSION STILL SPONSORS ME.AM A PROUD LDP COMPASSION STIDENT. It is an honor and blessing to be used in the lives of these children. I just dont know. We are so thankful that you are a part of the Compassion family. Please hop on over here for more information about letter writing and some of the issues you are encountering. or less frequently. I serve as senior Pastor of a church of around 200 people and wanted to get my church involved but before I did I wanted to see first hand where my sponsorship money was going. I would like to help clarify some things for you and answer any other questions that you may have, as well. Exact same letter, writing, and drawing, apparently from our sponsored child. I have gotten many pictures and letters back from them. I show that we processed this gift on May 17th. Often the replies are disjointed and Ive had the odd letter with drawings and little else which reflects badly on the education they are supposed to be getting. Your letters of love and support boost Ediths spirit in ways that sponsorship alone cannot. Gods love is Extravagant Compassion International is know doubt !! Please know that we do regularly ask outside, non-biased watchdog organizations, such as Charity Navigators, to research us. Compassion International cannot currently be evaluated by our Impact & Results methodology because either (A) it is eligible, but we have not yet received data; (B) we have not yet developed an algorithm to estimate its programmatic impact; (C) its programs are not direct services; or (D) it is not heavily reliant on contributions from individual donors.Note: The absence of a score does not indicate a positive or negative assessment, it only indicates that we have not yet evaluated the organization. Its frustrating. My wife and I are traveling to the Philippines this year. If you received letters in February, I can send inquiries for you this month to check on both of them. I am sending an inquiry today to have Farel write another letter to you and make sure he is doing ok. We recognize that not all metrics and beacons equally predict a charitys success. Compassion International is a Christian humanitarian aid child sponsorship organization dedicated to the long-term development of children living in poverty around the world. Please send us an email at [emailprotected] with your sponsor number and we would be happy to see whats going on. The children have always written more letters to us than we to them, which make us grateful. They were always sad in their photos, their clothes look tattered, shoes that didnt fit, and one of them always looks hungry (my Ugandan child). However, keep in mind, children may not havetheir most recent letter with themwhenthey reply. Tim, thank you for sharing about your work in the Philippines! We are happy to help! In our cluster here in Iloilo City, Philippines, there had been two project closures. I called Compassion International for three days straight asking question after question, spending hours on the internet trying to find some wrong doing with Compassion International and counldnt find anything only being a person who had only been saved for 5 months. This will speed up the time it takes to send and receive letters between you and your child to weeks instead of months. Does that happen when they become adults? After exchanging a couple of letters I noticed something she never failed to thank me for sponsoring her, and she always asked me to pray for her, and her family, and her country. I was glad the child couldnt see that page. Hello Kate. Main address 12290 Voyager Parkway Colorado Springs, CO 80921 USA Show more contact info EIN 36-2423707 NTEE code info International Relief (Q33) IRS filing requirement This organization is not required to file an annual return with the IRS because it is a church. The way our program works, sponsors are not guaranteed to receive a Christmas gift acknowledgement since all Christmas gifts are combined and distributed evenly among both sponsored and unsponsored children to ensure each child receives a gift. Were thrilled about this and I pray that you begin to find your questions being answered in future letters your child writes to you. In regards to your childs profile on the website, the information under Community, Child Development Center, and Child information are only changed if there is new information to add to it. Here are a couple of my favorite blogs talking about Why Do My Sponsored Childs Letters Seem So Impersonal and What to Expect from Your Childs Letters that may be more helpful for you :). The organization reported that it is implementing 14 Equity Practices. We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization/'s programs, portfolios, and the populations served. If the charity does report a diversion, then we check to see if it complied with the Form 990 instructions by describing what happened and its corrective action. So, reluctantly, I will have to say goodbye in February 2014 the same month an automatic levy was set up to take more out of my finance to deliver more of the same. She went from a scrawny, sad faced little one to a healthy, grinny little young lady. We really have doubts about CI now and the trust we had is breaking, which is not good. Heart is broken over all this. I do absolutely believe these are written by my children. While the rest of the world seems able to you have to be wasting valuable dollars that could be going to the children. Or would that be something for her financial sponsor? Hi Mandy! I pray for the people who work in this ministry and do good in Jesus name. When I lived in Egypt I was told no one celebrates birthdays. This measure reflects the percent of its total expenses a charity spends on the programs and services it exists to deliver. But theyre children!! Im saddened to see that youre so disappointed and frustrated with us so soon into your sponsorship. I see that youve already written to him seven times. Many children are behind in their schooling because their parents could not afford to send them to school. We provide holistic child development in the four areas of development cognitive, physical, economic, and spiritual. Ministries and money: Christian charities that use your money wisely Compassion International is an American child sponsorship and Christian humanitarian aid organization headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that aims to positively influence the long-term development of children globally who live in poverty. Since it takes about two to three months for gifts to be wired and delivered, Juliano likely just received the birthday gift in mid July. If I want to send extra money there is a spot right on the bottom to do so. I am so sorry to hear that you are feeling disappointed in the letters you have been receiving from your kiddo, and that they are making you question if he is receiving your letters. I really hope you enjoy it! . I have written 2 letters in a month at times and they are just backing up. Compassion International Ministries Inc. cannot currently be evaluated by our Impact & Results methodology because either (A) it is eligible, but we have not yet received data; (B) we have not yet developed an algorithm to estimate its programmatic impact; (C) its programs are not direct services; or (D) it is not heavily reliant on contributions from individual donors. I was quite upset as one can imagine! We calculate the charity's average expenses over its three most recent fiscal years.