Sponsoring a child

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Hi all,

For Christmas this year, my wife and I have told our family instead of getting us gifts, we would like them to make a donation or sponsor a child in our name.

So...i'm really not too familiar with any of the groups or foundations that do this. A google search turns up lots of different ones. Does anyone have any experience with this, or any suggestions? It would be greatly appreciated.

thanks all.

[troutman]

We did something similar and sponsored a child in Tanzania a few years ago, with World Vision. They seem to do good work, though I wish I had know they were Christian focused. There are other groups that are secular if that is important to you.

http://www.worldvision.ca/home/index.cfm

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Originally Posted by troutman

We did something similar and sponsored a child in Tanzania a few years ago, with World Vision. They seem to do good work, though I wish I had know they were Christian focused. There are other groups that are secular if that is important to you.

http://www.worldvision.ca/home/index.cfm

Thanks troutman, I'll have a look at that. I'm not really sure if the group being religious or not is important to us, as long as they do good work, I think that's the main thing.

I would definitely like to hear of some non-religous groups though, if anyone knows of some.

[Ace]

http://www.compassion.ca/

We've sponsored a child through them, and they are top notch all the way.

This just might be heresay, but i've heard bad things about how much money actually gets to the child with "foster parents plan". But that is not first hand.

There is a web site that ranks charities somewhere...

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Originally Posted by Ace

http://www.compassion.ca/

We've sponsored a child through them, and they are top notch all the way.

This just might be heresay, but i've heard bad things about how much money actually gets to the child with "foster parents plan". But that is not first hand.

There is a web site that ranks charities somewhere...

Thanks Ace.

These foster parents plans you are talking about, do you have any more info on that? Can anyone else weigh in on this?

Thanks again...

[Mike Oxlong]

We are sponsoring 2 kids from Christian Childrens Fund. I admit I didn't look into each of the charities in depth as maybe I should have but they seem to have a good operation.

We do have somewhat regular contact with both kids as well in the form of letters.

[BlackEleven]

Personally, I would avoid the religious ones unless it happens to be important for you. Otherwise, they will be spending some of the money on churches, bibles, and/or other religious items. Personally, I would rather 100% of the money go towards schools, books, food, etc.

To me, religion is secondary to those things, but I realize a lot of people would prefer some of the money is spent on religious items, so if you're in that category then consider the religious charities.

[Devils'Advocate]

Someone asked this recently, so rather than retype my response:
http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=30658

It's good to see more and more people giving where they can, especially at Christmas. I'm not Christian, but if I were I don't think the way to celebrate the birth of the savior is for people with lots of stuff to buy gifts for other people with lots of stuff. This time of year, at least for me, is about sharing and giving to the less fortunate.

Christmas is still a big deal for my friends and family who feel semi-OBLIGATED to buy me something, so I let them peruse through the Canadian Foster Parents Plan "catalogue":
https://secure1.fosterparentsplan.ca...ftsofHope.aspx

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Mike Oxlong, Black Eleven and Devils Advocate, thanks for all the suggestions. I definitly want as much money as possible to go to the child, so something secular is sounding pretty good right now.

Devils, i know you feel pretty strong about this topic, just wanted to say thanks for all the great info.