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March 18, 2013
Does International Child Sponsorship Work? Study Claims Answer
Examination of Compassion International programs in six nations finds 'statistically significant' impact—especially in Africa.
Sending $38 each month to sponsor a foreign child—a practice made popular by Compassion International—has some fresh evidence on its side. A new report from researchers at the University of San Francisco reveals that sponsored children are more likely to graduate both secondary school and college, have salaried employment, and be leaders in their communities.
The study, which will be published next month in the University of Chicago's Journal of Political Economy, examined 10,144 people in six countries that host Compassion sponsorship programs—Bolivia, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Uganda, and the Philippines. (Compassion works in 26 nations in total.)
In those countries, the authors stated, "child sponsorship also appears to be a great 'equalizer,'" helping raise overall baseline education outcomes for boys and girls alike. According to the report:
"[Sponsorship's] impacts on the educational outcomes are larger in those countries with lower baseline education outcomes, the two African countries, while impacts in Latin America and Asia are smaller, although still statistically significant. Similarly, in countries where baseline schooling is higher for boys, child sponsorship tends to have a bigger impact on girls; where it is higher for girls, it has a bigger impact on boys."
But the authors specify that not all child sponsorship programs are created equal: Their analysis looks only at outcomes for Compassion, which funnels money more directly from sponsor to child. According to Compassion USA communications director Tim Glenn, sponsorship dollars fund local churches that put on programs for the children. Compassion also allows sponsors to contribute additional financial gifts directly to their children.
Programs from other organizations—including World Vision, Plan USA, and Save the Children—that "use funding given in the name of a sponsored child more broadly to create village-level public goods" are "less-targeted nature" and "more difficult to assess," the study stated.
In 1998, CT reported how some child sponsorship programs were falling short. In June, CT will offer in-depth commentary on child sponsorship and feature study author Bruce Wydick, who previously ranked child sponsorship as the fourth most-effective way to fight poverty.
Last week, CT reported that Compassion had selected Jim Mellado to succeed Wess Stafford as president later this year. Stafford previously shared the story of his childhood abuse as a missionary child in a CT cover story.
CT also has written about the best ways to fight poverty, and featured World Vision USA president Richard Stearns' response.
Editor's note: This post has been updated to clarify the nature of Compassion's sponsorship programs.
Comments
Great "Gleaning" on and Important Topic Melissa!
It may be worth pointing out that World Vision made Child Sponsorship popular before Compassion International become the primary avenue for such efforts. Beginning in the 1950s, World Vision was doing direct child child sponsorship which involved letters back an forth, gifts exchanged, etc. In those first few decades after World War II, Compassion, which was the Everett Swanson Evangelistic Agency until 1963, was not well known outside Swedish Baptist circles. World Vision, on the other hand, was well-connected to Youth for Christ, the NAE, etc.
Thanks again for this note. I'm ordering a copy of the article today.
Sincerely,
Miles
Posted By: Miles Mullin | March 18, 2013 1:17 PM
And all this began for American evangelicals due to the Korean War: http://bit.ly/15isYuP
Posted By: Miles Mullin | March 18, 2013 1:35 PM
Miles, when you say that "Compassion Int'l is the primary avenue for such efforts" (and by such efforts I assume you mean child sponsorship), I'm curious about the sense in which you mean that.
Compassion says on their website: "Today, Compassion helps more than 1.2 million children in 26 countries." World Vision says on theirs: "In 2008, World Vision assisted more than 3.6 million sponsored children worldwide." Their website lists 41 countries where children can be sponsored.
If World Vision has three times as many children sponsored as Compassion, in nearly twice as many countries, I'm not sure I would consider Compassion (as wonderful an organization as it is) the primary avenue for child sponsorship?
But please correct me if I'm not catching your meaning.
Posted By: Larry Short | March 18, 2013 7:35 PM
I think he says in the article that Compassion is a different type of sponsorship than World Vision. The money given goes directly to the child, and World Vision doesn't give it directly to the child and the article says that it is more difficult to assess the impact when it is so general. Seems clear to me. Happy to hear the good report since my 17 year old is now sponsoring a Compassion child.
Posted By: Linda Watt | March 20, 2013 1:04 PM
It's wonderful that we're sponsoring millions of children up to age 18. Our family has sponsored a number of children over the past 25+ years through Compassion International. We've also actively promoting World Vision's important work.
Why, though, aren't we making it possible to sponsor the same children past age 18 so they can attend university? After all, on average it costs only $3,500/year to do so. Why not? Because that equals nearly $300 per month--a tough sell to most donors even in a good economy.
I've found only one non-profit doing this successfully, albeit still on a relatively small basis. It's Portland, Oregon-based These Numbers Have Faces founded by Justin Zoradi half a dozen years ago (www.TheseNumbers.org).
I'd love to see Christianity Today examine whether what These Numbers is doing can scale. If so, great! If not, is there another model that might work?
Posted By: David Sanford (@drsanford77) | March 22, 2013 5:30 PM
David,
Great question! Fortunately, Compassion has an answer.
I encourage you to check out Compassion's Leadership Development Program. To date, we have nearly 3,000 students attending university around the world through Compassion's sponsorship program. Sponsors pay a monthly fee to help pay for tuition, textbooks and other school related expenses. And the program has been extremely successful. Today, there are nurses, teachers, pastors, police officers, business owners and yes, even country leaders (members of Parliament in Uganda and Haiti) who graduated through Compassion's LDP program. Check it out here:
http://www.compassion.com/student-leader.htm
Posted By: Tim Glenn | March 25, 2013 12:58 PM
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