Frequently Asked Questions

Your privacy is important to us, which is why My Compassion is subject to a very high level of security and operates under the same security principles that apply to online banking. My Compassion uses secure and encrypted communications between your web browser and our servers. When using My Compassion, you should see a yellow or green security padlock or a blue tab indicating the name of the site’s security certificate. These indicators are your assurance that My Compassion is running in a secure environment, and may appear differently depending on which web browser you use.

You can read more about our privacy policy here.

Donations to the Christmas Gift Fund will appear in the “My Giving” section of My Compassion as your contribution is not specifically designated to your sponsored child. We’re considering adding gift descriptions to help you better identify how your gifts were used in future updates to My Compassion.

Compassion Canada artists and speakers are available for your church/event. For all enquiries relating to having Compassion represented at your event, please visit our Ambassador page.

Yes, we have a Gifts of Compassion catalogue.

Our office would also be happy to provide you with paper copies of the catalogue, please contact us with your request.

You can view past and upcoming gifts to your child through your My Compassion account.  If you do not have a gift set up, you can request this through the gift page on My Compassion or you can contact our office directly.

Sharing Compassion is an opportunity for sponsors to share their story of sponsoring with Compassion with others so that more children can be released from poverty in Jesus’ name. It can happen anytime and anywhere. The purpose is to help bring the needs of children in poverty to the attention of caring Christians who could help them. We provide you with all the resources you need for a successful event, including an appropriate video to share and presentation ideas.

Email us today for more information or visit www.sharingcompassion.ca

Yes!

Compassion exposure trips are an exciting opportunity for you to have a safe yet rich cultural experience while allowing you to see our work firsthand and visit your sponsored child. When we’re travelling to your sponsored child’s country, you will receive a personal invitation by email to travel with us and see for yourself how your sponsorship is impacting your child’s life. We promise, when you return from this adventure, you will never look at the world the same way.

Check your My Compassion account to see if we have the correct email address on file for you.

To add or change your email address, click here.

Read more about Compassion Exposure trips!

For each gift you order, you will receive a gift card for you to personalize for your friends and loved ones that explains how the gift you have purchased will benefit an individual or family living in poverty.

In the event a sponsor misses a monthly donation, Compassion has a fund that covers the sponsorship cost. We realize that credit card changes and other financial complications are an inconvenient reality for many of us. Our goal is to ensure children receive the same benefits and attend the program as usual while we try to contact the sponsor to resolve the missed donation. Please note, Compassion cannot cover a sponsorship indefinitely and if we were unable to contact the current sponsor, we would have to find a new sponsor for the child.

You can update your financial information through our secure website.

In most of the countries we work in, photographs are a “big deal”. Each child wishes to look his/her best for their potential sponsor. This means in some countries that this photo is a serious occasion and not the appropriate time for a smile.

Check out this great story about picture day!

You can send a family gift of $40-$1,200 CAD up to two times per year (gift limit is cumulative). The centre staff will talk with the child and family to help them to spend your gift in the wisest way.

To send a gift online through your My Compassion account click here or contact us for more information.

You can send a family gift online through your My Compassion account or by contacting our office directly. You can send a family gift of $40-$1,200 CAD up to two times per year (gift limit is cumulative). Families often use gifts to buy livestock, items to repair the home, food, clothing, or bedding. Your financial gift to your sponsored child is greatly appreciated as it brings joy and help to ease the struggles of poverty.

No less than 80 percent of your donation goes to ministry activities, including all expenses that occur within the country your sponsored child is from,  which directly benefit sponsored children. Children and families do not receive cash but instead are recipients of goods and services, carefully designed, delivered or purchased according to their needs. Independent and internal audits of our work are conducted to ensure donor support is being used efficiently and with integrity.

Compassion Canada’s financial statements are available online at Financial Statements .

Compassion’s holistic child development program activities take place at church-based child development centres. Sometimes activities take place in the church building or the church may have another facility designated for the child development centre. Each centre is within a 30-minute walk of the homes of the children it serves.

Program activities vary in detail according to the culture, environment, or needs of the area where the individual centres are located. However, there are common elements in all Compassion child development centres which ensure that all Compassion-assisted children are given the greatest opportunity to be released from spiritual, economic, social, emotional and physical poverty.

Each child development centre:

Meets on a regular basis.
Uses the facilities of the local church partner through which the program operates.
Provides a programmed curriculum of activities for registered and sponsored children.
Has a committee which provides local accountability and support.
Has a director employed by the church to manage the day-to-day activities.
Employs staff and volunteers selected by the local church.
Operates under Compassion International’s carefully monitored standards and guidelines.
Provides reasonable levels of safety for children relative to the realities of the surrounding community.

Children are required to write to their sponsors a minimum of two letters a year. If there is something wrong with your sponsored child, we will contact you. If it has been 6 months since you have received a letter, please contact our office. We may have an undeliverable address for you and have been unable to send your sponsored child’s letters through to you.

You can reach us by phone at 1-800-563-5437 or by email at info@compassion.ca

Children don’t necessarily write back to you on the same day that they receive your letter. Instead, they reply on a scheduled day when all the children at the project write to their sponsors. Your sponsored child may have proudly taken your letter home to share with family & friends and may not have it handy to remind them of the questions you answered. Please remember that it can take up to two months for your letter to be translated (if needed) and delivered. Please check the date of your sponsored child’s letter so you can work out whether he or she would have received your questions before they last wrote. In some cultures children are rarely asked about what they think and do, which may explain why your child doesn’t always answer your questions, or has difficulty expressing an answer. Compassion is working on a program to ensure that questions are recorded by project staff, so they can ensure that the children answer them. You can help in this process by underlining or highlighting your questions in your letter and making them easy to understand.

Compassion’s child development ministry is not based on material handouts. We facilitate individual child development by providing learning opportunities that a child may not encounter in another situation. Learning is central to Compassion’s mission-we provide life skills that foster each child’s success. Learning opportunities also are provided for parents, which enables them to improve their parenting skills and provide for their families. Therefore we do not allow extra money to be given every month, but there are several opportunities over the year for you to bless your sponsored child and family with a special monetary gift.

To give a child, family or project gift online click here or connect with our office directly.

Sponsorship plus Urgent Needs provides funds for additional benefits for sponsored children, their families and communities that cannot be provided by child sponsorship funds alone. While sponsorship funds provide activities which directly benefit your sponsored child, the extra $10 from Sponsorship plus Urgent needs is used to fund initiatives and programs which sow further into the lives of Compassion assisted children, their families and communities.

As Compassion raises more funds for these activities, we will be able to assist more sponsored children with these additional benefits.

Some of these include:

• Emergency medical care
• HIV and AIDS Initiative – includes education on prevention as well as care
• Education and training programs for parents of sponsored children
• Partner church development – including church partner staff training

If you could sum up our ministry in a phrase, it would be “holistic child development.”

We want to see children grow and flourish in all areas of their life – spiritual, physical, cognitive and social-emotional. Through sponsorship we can help make that happen. Each child is linked with one sponsor that contributes $41 a month to ensure that their sponsored child receives healthcare, education, food, clothing, vocational training, social, emotional and spiritual care. These benefits are provided through activities run through the church-based child development centre.

No less than 80 percent of your monthly support benefits your child, either directly or indirectly. Compassion-assisted children and their families receive no cash. Benefits are in the form of goods and services, carefully designed, delivered and purchased according to each child’s individual needs.

As a general rule, 20 percent of these funds are invested in the development, oversight, and auditing of Compassion’s programs in which every assisted-child participates. These investments ensure that each child receives the best care possible, rather than becoming the recipient of a handout.

The remaining funds are used to meet the day-to-day needs of each child. This can include:

• nutritional meals and the provision of clean drinking water;
• medical and dental check-ups, care and education;
• educational supplies and tuition fees;
• clothing including school uniforms;
• non-formal educational and life-skills training such as participation in excursions and camps;
• extra-curricular activities such as drama, dance, music and art etc.; and
• biblical training and discipleship

Our local church partners also invest considerable resources in the development of each child, allowing Compassion and the church to help bring an eternal solution to poverty in the life of a child.