Compassion International

I have supported multiple Compassion children for over thirty years and have been 99% happy with the experience. Their decision to build a data system from scratch led to a few glitches recently, but I have always received letters and news. I went to El Salvador to visit the three children I was sponsoring and was impressed with all the children were learning at the centers and with the staff we met. We support many charities and I consider Compassion one of the best.

Compassion is the most effective charity I have ever seen. The children in the program are given such wonderful opportunities to grow up healthy, well educated and having hope for their future. I love supporting my two sponsored children through Compassion. We write to each other and I know that they are receiving love and protection from their local church. I have also visited Conpassion projects in Africa. The love that the staff show to the children is amazing and the joy on the faces of the children and their families is so evident.

I Have been sponsoring my child from another mother in Togo, Afrika for past 3 years. My goal is to provide her education and faith to God that anything is possible, and Compassion is providing me with the opportunity to serve God and do God's work at the same time. I thank God for everything and I pray this company will last forever and spread the God's message over to the millions of people in the world.

I have been a sponsor for 17 years. Compassion is an incredible organization, and I am happy to have seen first-hand what an amazing job it is doing in the poorest of areas. In my many encounters with Compassion staff both here in the US and abroad, everyone is passionate about the mission of Compassion. I am continuously amazed by the work they do and the lives they transform.

I have been a sponsor of children for several years. I have found Compassion International to be above reproach in every way. Yes they do consistently ask for help but I never felt like they were doing a "sales job" on me or my wife. We are able to answer letters that we receive from our sponsored children and get to know them a little. Compassion International has been a shining light in making people aware of the tremendous need little children have in poor countries.

Oct 2021 I have been supporting two girls from Africa for 7 years. I rarely get photos of the children and when I do it's the same old sad poor looking photo I was given initially. 1x they sent me an updated photo and then the very next time I heard from them they were back to the old original photo where the girls were young and poor looking. I've written online and complained about photos w 200 likes. 1 reply from a woman compassion rep. said I needed to find another charity if I thought I was going to get updated photos on a regular basis.!! . Needless to say I was floored with that response. Also their accounting is wrong. And the last 4 years I have been paying annually. But yet I keep finding out at the end of the year that I have a balance. Although that's impossible I have paid that so-called balance twice and guess what yes it is back again. Received a progress report from the president and they were off by over $300 of what I have contributed. That is a lot of money, so I wrote a letter to the president explaining the problem end of October 2021. It's almost Christmas and I still have not heard back from anyone. Compassion hold off some of those beg letters and please send out a How am I doing annual survey and please be sure to read them. It's a great program...I hate to pull the rug from under my girls after so many years, one is 19 now and will be graduating out of the program very soon. Kudos to the donors who have had an opportunity to visit their children, I plan to do that too I think it would make me feel much better. Oh and I just thought about it while there I can take my own darn photos. LOL

I attended a Christan concert and they were handing out sponsor packets. I sponsored a little girl but the picture was of a boy. It took awhile to get a photograph of the little girl. I sent a $100 for her birthday and it took me asking and writing Compassion before I ever heard if this child received the $. Something happened to her mom but I never heard. I sent stickers (the ONLY allowed item us sponsors can mail) and frequently sent coloring sheets. I NEVER heard if she got these items. I found out her family moved right before her birthday and Christmas. If I had not called asking that the $ I contributed to both of these occassions be refunded I never would have received it. Compassion sent me another packet for a new child to sponsor. My husband was just laid off from his job so it wasn't a good time to commit to this again. Compassion AUTOMATICALLY enrolled me. I got letter from family saying how happy they were and pictures of their new baby. It was heartbreaking to call Compassion and terminate this sponsorship. Compassion should never just enroll people without consent and deduct $. I really wish it was possible to mail gifts to these children along with monthly contributions. I disagree with Compassions reasoning behind this policy. I miss the girl I sponsored. It was on my bucket list to fly and meet her. I might try again at a later date

I have been sponsoring 2 Compassion children, one has graduated from the program. Her sister contacted me on FB and asked if I would be a friend of hers and of her sister whom I supported for at 10 years. I accepted the request. Nobody has asked me for help with money or anything else, however, much gratitude has been shown via my former Compassion child. I still have another child I'm supporting and have been supporting him for 12 years.. since he was 4 years old... Recently, he has sounded very down in his letters to me and has asked for prayer for him and his family.. I felt very sad for him and told him that my other now former Compassion child had contacted me on FB... Mind you, I did not encourage him to contact me on FB.. The Compassion staff deleted my letter and called me on the phone saying this was strictly prohibited. Why is that? It would be my choice to live with the consequences of whatever happened.. I'm still sponsoring my child and likely will until he's graduated out of the program... but this disturbed me a lot. So don't tell your current child about any of your former children that you were contacted on FB... or the hand of the law will come down and everything good you have done will come into question... and for what... That's what I don't understand... We have freedom of speech... and a need to be ethical... that's for sure... I've tried to write encouraging and uplifting letters to my child and comfort both children during times of need... Anyway, that's all.. I lost a little respect for the ministry... when I know that people meet their children and even have connections to where they live... I don't get it...

So far we have been very impressed with this ministry and hope to be able to continue to sponsor the child we have chosen. It costs money in anything you do these days but just knowing that a part of our donation is helping a child is enough for us!

I have been sponsoring a girl in Ethiopia for over 2 years. Since she was 17 at that time, I thought we could have a good communication and I could learn something about her life and life in Ethiopia in general. I wrote letters, attached pictures ... her responses were always about Lord and God being great but really nothing personal nor any response to my detailed letters. That got me thinking if she was even receiving my letters! I really wanted to help a child and make a difference. What I sent her a Christmas gift to her and her family in the amount of $155 and few months later I got her letter being thankful for the $13.93 she received, I was furious!!! When I called the headquarters, they pretended to be looking things up and were full of excuses and information that just didn't add up! I am heartbroken that there are children and families in the world suffering and I wanted to help at least one. But I have a family of my own and don't want to be taken advantage of! I wish there was a company that was honest and transparent as we have no idea how some of these people have it and every little helps!

I have always been a big fan of Compassion International! Things have changed—let me explain. We became Compassion International sponsors in 1997, sponsoring a young boy named John from India. It was joy to write and receive letters, as our kids were about the same age. We sponsored him until Compassion had to pull out of India, and our sponsorship was transferred to Nuttapong in Thailand. In 2002 our sponsorship again was transferred, this time to a young girl, Nelly, from Bolivia. Nelly was a joy to sponsor, and when my wife left me in 2008, Compassion was very helpful in how I should inform her via letters. I was actually able to sponsor her from age 5 until she had to leave the program at 18 years old, in 2015. Compassion gave me the choice to replace my sponsorship with another little girl named Jhuliana, again from Boliva. I have been enjoying sponsoring her, supporting her monetarily, and writing and receiving letters. However, all things changed two weeks ago, when I received a letter from Rick Management of Compassion International (I don’t know what his position is there), informing me that my sponsorship of Jhuliana had been cancelled due to “updated child protection policies,” which includes (from their website: “We immediately terminate the child sponsorship of anyone found on a sex offender registry. We also terminate the sponsorships of anyone living at the same address as a registered sex offender.” My story is this: about 10 years ago, I was approached by a person I used to work with, who explained his son had gotten into trouble, and needed a place to live. I immediately thought of the Bible, Matthew 25: ‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, "I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ I offered him a room at my house (please note that this same passage is the reason that I acted on to sponsor children from Compassion International!). I personally don’t understand how the fact that I have a sexual offender living at my address, affects my relationship with Jhuliana in Bolivia. I am curious what Compassion will be telling Jhuliana about why her sponsor is not in her life anymore, they would not answer that question, when I asked.

I have been a sponsor to 18 years. It break my heart to write a review like this but I have been so deeply disappointed in the past few years, I feel obligated to say something. My last sponsored child was missing from the program's center for a while before they told me. I pushed to know if he was still attending because the picture had not been updated in years and in it he still looked like a child of 8 or 9 while he was supposed to be 14. Also, the letters I received were the same formula despite writing to him. Having worked with children in extreme poverty, I know what stunting looks like and this was not it. After pushing for a follow up for months, I received a letter stating he had left the program months before. I suspected that this was not the truth and that he had been out of the program for a while. I told Compassion that I wanted to end my sponsorship and did not take on another child. Three weeks later, I receive a packet and a welcome letter. I did not authorize this nor did I want to be a sponsor. When I called to cancel, they pressured me into staying. I stayed for a few months and then called back saying I could not afford to continue. This is true. I am in financial hardship at the moment. I believed that my sponsorship had been cancelled and so I stopped paying. Now, my account says I owe $200 of sponsorship fees and it is affecting my credit score. Currently, I am still a sponsor even though I no longer want to, or have the ability, to work with this organization any more.

I started sponsoring 2 little girls : one from Mexico and one from Africa . I was receiving regular letters from the little girl from Mexico and I had no received any correspondence from the little girl from Africa. I had sent an additional Birthday gift donation to the little girl from Mexico . When I sent her a letter asking her how she liked her gift , I received a letter from Compassion stating they had disenrolled from the program because her parents did not comply with the program requirements. I’m very disappointed that a Christian organization would do this . I know question their program .

We were having a nice time with compassion and the child we sponsored until one day received letter from child stating it was last letter. I called Compassion and they said they were suppose to call me first before we received the letter. I mailed a last letter to our sponsor child. I got a call from Compassion stating that my address could not be in the letter. I told them to redact it, they said they destroyed the letter and I would have to write another one. I took quite a bit of time writing and putting pics in it. Then to top it off, we received a letter about two weeks later from Compassion thanking us for our new sponsorship, WHAT? We never approved any new sponsor ship and particularly after the disorganization at the end of the term of the first one. What is going on there? I went into our account, and there is no way to cancel your account or payment method.

I had been contributing to Compassion for decades. Over my time with them, I sponsored four children. In the beginning, it was fine. Then, I noticed that they constantly sent packets of ways to give more money. That is a red flag that an organization is too focused on collecting money. When your child times out, they automatically assign you another child and keep taking your money. I called to make them switch that on my account, and it worked for a while, but then when my last child timed out, it happened again. All of my previous children timed out at 18, but my last child timed out at 22. I don't remember being informed of this upfront. Their marketing is slick to pull on your heartstrings, better than most secular organizations. It gave me a suspicion of the organization overall. You cannot close your account on the website and must speak to a "representative". Once they have you, they don't want to let you go and employ guileful tactics to keep you.

Signed up to sponsor at a Christian concert it was a little girl and we sponsored her until after years they sent a letter stating that her family moved and she could no longer be in the program. They sent another photo of a different girl and without asking just kept taking money from the credit card. This continued but raised a red flag as to how you would cancel if they don’t even give you the option of if you want to continue your sponsorship with. So fast forward more time goes by and no way to contact anyone. This year my husband suffered a severe debilitating stroke and isn’t able to work anymore and if someone hadn’t made a false charge on his credit card that I had to dispute and cancel the card Compassion International would still be making decisions about my finances without my approval!

Sponsored a girl for many years when we were informed that she had left the program. We thought that was the end of it and were not going to sponsor another child as we were turning towards another charity that works here in the United States. I received a letter 3 weeks after being told of our sponsorship ending stating that we had agreed to sponsor another girl. At no point did we authorize this payment to Compassion. When you call them they act like they don't know how it happened. They make it impossible to cancel, act like you are a bad guy for canceling a sponsorship for a child in need you never signed up for, and generally giving you the run around so you get tired and give up. This is not a good Christian organization. They refuse to help in any way when you have an issue. Stay away and spend your money elsewhere. They will try to hoodwink you and your charitable giving.

I donated to this organization for 11 years. My child grew out of the program and it wasn't until I received her letter saying goodbye that I realized she hadn't been receiving my uploaded letters over more than a year due to a malfunction in their website. The website would confirm receipt of my letters but never produce them to send to the child. The expiration date of her leaving hadn't happened yet but they purged her and my membership log in area where the letters I wrote her had been stored. Since my log in was purged, so were my letters. Then they asked me to give them a waiver that they could give her my address to stay in touch since she was out of the program and invited me to write a nice final letter which they would pass on to her. I wrote her the letter promptly and sent them two copies of the waiver (emailed where they told me to send it the day they requested it) and sent a copy of the waiver with my final letter in the mail. Well they sent her part of my letter but left out the parts about how to contact me and my heartfelt comments in that section because they said they didn't have my waiver. ? It was attached to my letter. They couldn't confirm what part of my final letter they gave her because they didn't have a copy any longer, so no one could say what was translated for her. This was all within a week of their receiving everything. Needless to say I was heart broken that they washed their hands of all of it, refused to help me over their mistakes of a malfunctioning website that confirmed they got my letters but never sent them to her AND botching up my final letter to Maria. I requested that they please resend (translate) my heartfelt letter and send it to make sure she understands I wish to stay in touch. They refused to try to do anything . How is this called "Compassion"? They are not interested in relationships.....only wanted me to sponsor another child and wash hands of years of writing to this girl in South America. I could sign up to send them money for another child. Sorry, not breaking my heart again. Management here has no desire to solve their own errors - very poorly run.

I have four children I give to in compassion but then I noticed one letter was clearly not the girl I'd been writing for years the handwriting was not hers the communication style she actually reintroduce herself like we had never talked before ! and the drawing was clearly not like all her other letters something's wrong and I tend to find out who's forging the kids letters!

Felt like for personal reasons my family is being discriminated against because of our past. Felt like they were marketing to me. Advocate told me that I "wrote too much and that can beoverwhelming for the families" even though that goes agaisnt what all of their marketing to me stands for. I would not reccomend the heartbreak of ending the sponsorships and taking the photos off of the wall to anyone.

It was with great sadness I couldn't sponsor a child because of financial issues that I had hoped would be resolved. But I asked if I could send the child anything because it really bothered me and the response was no or I dont understand your question. I felt horrible enough, really.

My wife and daughter each have been sponsoring an individual child for the past 8 years. My wife went on line to provide additional donations to her child for christmas. Discovered her sponsorship, and my daughters were cancelled due to an offense I COMMITTED 20 years ago. So much for Christian values and forgiveness. 2 kids, 8 years, 75.00 a month. Over 7000.00 donated. SPCA will be pleased.

Great ministry! We have been sponsoring a child for a few years, and we love getting updates to see how she is doing.

I’m so heart broke, I had signed up to sponsor a child. 1st I kept having them say a boy then things saying they were a girl. 2nd my sponorship was abruptly cancelled b/c they didn’t think I gave enough. $ 3rd This has let me down also the child and their family. I can’t even say good by and it wasn’t my choice to leave.

Being on the inside and also a past sponsor, please do not support this ministry financially. There is a lot of deception and darkness in this place. Money is spent outrageously and sponsors are lied to (with employees even encouraged to not be fully transparent) just to name a couple of things. Please pray heavily for this ministry.