FAQs

• How much time does my sponsored child spend at the Compassion child development centre?

  The amount of time or days your sponsored child spends at their local child development centre will depend on the country and community they live in. A unique aspect of Compassion's programs is that they are run in partnership with local churches and implemented by people from the local community. Each church partner has the freedom to contextualise Compassion's programs in ways that meet the needs of their particular community, while still following Compassion's general guidelines.

  For example, in Kenya, six to eight-year-old children attend the Compassion child development centre for eight hours each Saturday. They are unable to come during the week as they are busy with school and chores and because the distance many of them have to walk makes it impractical for them to come more frequently. However, in Bangladesh, for example, it is different. Six- to eight-year-old children in Bangladesh visit the Compassion centre six days a week, five hours a day from Monday through to Friday and eight hours on Saturday. Schools in Bangladesh don't generally start until 10:30am, so children go to the Compassion child development centre before and after school. This is just one example of the variety of ways a Compassion child development centre can contextualise its program to fit the community they work in.

  Find out more:

  Child Sponsorship

• How much does it cost to sponsor a child with Compassion Australia?

  Sponsoring a child with Compassion costs $55 per month per sponsored child. Your generous contribution each month helps supply resources to local churches partnering with us in developing communities, and provide a range of benefits to the children who are registered in the program, including:

  • The opportunity to hear the gospel in a culturally relevant way
  • Learning opportunities, school supplies and assistance with school fees as needed
  • Health care such as medical check-ups, dental care and vaccinations
  • Nutritious meals as required
  • Key life skills and vocational training programs
  • Individualised care and attention

  For an additional $12 a month (or another amount of your choosing), you can support Critical Needs. There are nine Critical Needs you can choose to support, depending on which areas you are most passionate about, such as providing safe water and sanitation, building homes and classrooms, providing vocational training, supporting newborn babies and pregnant mums and more. Critical Needs address areas of life for children that are beyond the reach of sponsorship, providing customised solutions to help children and their communities overcome obstacles to their development.

  You can give to Critical Needs even if you don’t sponsor a child.

  You can:

  • Sponsor a child
  • Give to Critical Needs
  • Read more about our finances
• How does Compassion support the families of registered children?

  Supporters will often want to find ways to provide support, love and care to the wider family of their sponsored child. In order to benefit as many families throughout the community as possible, Compassion generally registers only one child from a family. Rather than being jealous, the rest of the family usually considers one child's sponsorship a great blessing because the support that child receive enables them to dedicate more of their resources to providing for other family members' needs.

  Although our Child Sponsorship Program connects one sponsor with one child, our local church partners will generally know each family member personally and endeavour to develop a supportive and restorative friendship with the household. Local staff will often include siblings and parents in many of the child development centre activities, particularly Christmas celebrations, and usually also offer other programs and activities like Sunday school and school holiday classes that are open to all children. You can also help your sponsored child's siblings to feel involved by including them in your letters and prayers, or giving a financial family gift, which will benefit each member of the family. 100 per cent of your family gift will be given to the child's family to help them meet their most pressing needs.

  Find out more:

  Does child sponsorship cause jealousy among children who are not registered?

  How does Compassion decide which children receive support?

  Give a family gift

• How is my money used at Compassion?

  Children and families who are assisted by Compassion rarely receive cash. Benefits are almost always in the form of goods and services, carefully designed, delivered or purchased according to their needs.

  Sponsoring a child helps them to access medical attention and treatment, good nutrition, education, a safe place to play and learn, the opportunity to know how much God loves them, and much more.

  Local staff from their community are responsible for managing this process and delivering the program, under the oversight of staff from Compassion's national office in that developing country.

  Approximately 80 per cent of donations to Compassion are used for:

  • Developing, delivering and supervising the Child Sponsorship Program
  • Purchasing goods and services for the direct benefit of the children in our programs
  • Informing and updating sponsors and facilitating their personal relationship with their sponsored child
  • Educating the community in Australia

  Approximately 20 per cent are allocated to cover all administration and fundraising costs in Australia. By using a portion of donations for fundraising costs, we are able to assist even more people with a much wider range of development activities. Direct mail appeals and conference presentations are part of our fundraising costs, and they generate financial responses.

  For every dollar spent on fundraising, we receive more than seven times that in return.

  One hundred per cent of family, child development centre, graduation, and child gifts (including birthday gifts) are sent through Compassion to the child development centre, where staff members assist the children and/or families to purchase goods that are appropriate and meet their specific needs. Because of the scale of the gift distribution process at Christmas, 90 per cent of funds donated to the Christmas Appeal are pooled to purchase a Christmas gift for each Compassion assisted child and 10 per cent is used for administration and fundraising costs.

  We do not use child sponsorship funds for community development activities; these are funded through other initiatives such as Critical Needs.

  And your donations to Compassion are tax-deductible (excluding donations to the Bible Fund). Compassion Australia has Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status for its Overseas Aid and Development Fund, as listed on the Australian Business Register under our ABN 67 001 692 566.

  For more information, please contact us.

  You can:

  • Sponsor a Child
  • Give a gift
  • Give to Critical Needs
• How does Compassion support my sponsored child if they are affected by a natural disaster?

  In the event that Compassion assisted children are directly affected by a natural disaster, our local staff will help families within the community. These include providing immediate food relief packs and clean water; medicinal and emergency kits, which contain supplies such as diarrhoea medicine, blankets, aspirin and skin ointment; and counselling and emotional support.

  Staff may also help families clean up their homes, go door to door to ensure families are safe, or inform them of the need to evacuate. In areas that are prone to natural disasters, local staff provide training for children and families so they are prepared in the event one occurs.

  You can read more about Compassion’s support and intervention to sponsored children and families affected by natural disasters here:

  • Restoring Hope: Floods in Indonesia
  • Restoring Hope: Typhoons in the Philippines
  • Restoring Hope: Cyclones in Bangladesh

  You can also give today to our Disaster Relief fund to help ensure that timely support can be provided when a natural disaster occurs.