Your session will time out at [00:00]. If you would like to sponsor [Child Name], please complete your transaction as soon as possible.Unfortunately your session timed out at [00:00] and since that time [Child Name] was sponsored by another person. Please visit the Sponsor a Child page to find another child.
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.
You can send a Christmas gift to your sponsored child by making a donation to the Christmas Gift Fund.
We recommend giving $25 per child. Donations to the Christmas Gift Fund are pooled to ensure no Compassion-assisted child goes without a gift, even if they are not yet sponsored. Gifts that might be purchased for the children by the child development centre staff include clothing, shoes, small toys, household items, linen, food and livestock.
Compassion aims to reach as many families as possible. Typically, only one child from a family will attend a project. The parents will choose which child is registered. However, if the family has great needs up to three children may be enrolled. The benefits of the program reach the whole family through interaction with staff, health screening, nutritional advice and supplies, parenting workshops and other church activities. Sponsored children often share what they learn at the Compassion project with siblings and many lead their entire families to Christ. As well as supporting your sponsored child and their family through prayer, as a sponsor you are able to send financial gifts to your sponsored child’s family.
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.
If you are fluent in the language your child speaks, please feel free to write to them using that language. Otherwise, please write in English. Please include an English version of the letter as well, as all letters are scanned at our headquarters in accordance with our child protection policy before they are couriered weekly to our country offices. Writing in your child’s language will mean one less letter for the Compassion staff to translate. However, it will not speed your letter to your child as we are unable to separate individual letters from the packages. Unfortunately, it is not possible to arrange for your letters not to be translated into English as our colleagues across the world deal with hundreds of letters everyday and are unable to single out individual letters. However, you will also receive the original letter written in their language, which you will be able to enjoy reading.
You can send a family gift of $40-$1,200 CAD up to two times per year (gift limit is cumulative). You can specify that your sponsored child’s family use your gift for livestock by simply asking us to attach a Gift Instruction to your gift. However, the family is free to use the gift for their greatest need. The centre staff will talk with the child and family to help them to spend your gift in the wisest way, with the best long-term improvement for the family. You can send a family gift through your MyCompassion account or bycalling our office.
Read more about how impactful the gift of livestock can be!
In addition to your monthly sponsorship donation and encouraging letters, you may wish to send gifts to your sponsored child. We are delighted when sponsors decide to provide additional support. We do not mail parcels because delivery in developing countries is unreliable and expensive, but you are able to send paper items like stickers, posters and colouring pages.
We also provide an opportunity to send a monetary gift. The options are: Birthday Gift, General Gift, Family Gift or Child Development Centre Gift. Child Development Centre staff assist children and their families to ensure funds are used appropriately and to discuss how to best use the gift to benefit the child and family. If you have a specific gift in mind, we will forward your suggestion, but ultimately the child or their family will make the final decision.
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
No less than eighty percent of your donation will be directed to Compassion’s Response programs. No more than 20 percent is used for fundraising initiatives and administration. Compassion assisted children and their families receive no cash. Benefits are always in the form of goods and services, carefully designed, delivered and purchased according to the children’s individual needs. We encourage you to check out our financial statement for more details.
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.
When you write a letter online, we send it digitally to the Country Office. From there, Compassion staff translate, print and deliver the letters (and photos) to your child. We are unable to send emails directly to your sponsored child but our online letter writing process is the next best option.
Children don’t necessarily write back to you on the same day that they get your stickers. Instead, they reply on a scheduled day when all the children at the project write to their sponsors. They may be writing back some weeks or even a month after they receive your letter, so may not remember whether they have already acknowledged what you have sent them. Please remember that each letter may take up to two months for translation and delivery. Please check the date of your child’s letter to work out whether he or she would have received your stickers before they last wrote back to you. Compassion is working on a process to ensure that every child acknowledges every piece of mail they receive from their sponsor. If you are in doubt whether your sponsored child has received your mail, you are welcome to write and ask.
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.
Absolutely! Please email us at info@compassion.ca or call us at 1-800-563-5437. Tax receipts are also available for you to download in your My Compassion account. For each year, tax receipts are issued no later than February 28th of the following year.
You can change your bank account information through the Payment Methods section of your My Compassion account or by calling our office. Thank you for supporting Compassion.
Our three distinctives make us who we are: We are Christ-centred, child-focused and church-based. We partner exclusively with local churches to implement our programs, because we believe the Church is the most effective in reaching its neighbours. Our holistic child development program is focused on developing children in every aspect of life—physical, social-emotional, cognitive and spiritual. And we do it all in Jesus’ name! We believe that transformed people will transform families, communities and nations, which is why we give children the opportunity to be rooted in Christian community at a local church, where they experience God’s transforming love and have the opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Learn more about what makes Compassion different from other organizations.
Please do not respond. While communication via social media might seem to save time and money, the risks this channel presents overshadow the potential benefits.
Compassion does want you to have the best relationship possible with your sponsored child, but we cannot guarantee everyone’s safety if we are not aware of what’s being communicated. While we trust that those who sponsor with Compassion are doing so out of a love for Christ, we have an obligation to protect the children in our care from sponsors who may not have the child’s best interests in mind. Because of this, we must be aware of what’s being communicated to ensure the child’s well-being.
Here are some additional factors we’ve considering when creating our letter only communication guideline:
It’s not uncommon for someone who knows a child is sponsored to create an account on a social network and posing as that child, contact his or her sponsor asking for money. In this situation, the child may be facing the threat of physical harm if the money is not provided.
We cannot protect your privacy or your sponsored child’s if we are not involved in the correspondence.
By serving as the conduit for communication between you and your sponsored child, we are able to watch for any content that may be inappropriate or culturally insensitive – no matter how well intentioned or innocent a comment may be.
Should you receive a friend request or a message from anyone claiming to be your sponsored child on Facebook or another social network or through any medium other than your letters from Compassion, please do not respond but rather contact us immediately at info@compassion.ca or 1-800-563-5437.
