Julie Patterson and her husband, Jeff, started supporting impoverished children abroad through Compassion International in 1985.
At the time, the couple sent letters by mail to the children they sponsored, but replies took months to reach them. Responses from the children were first sent to a country field office for translation and then to the organization’s U.S. headquarters in Colorado Springs before finally being shipped to the Pattersons in Detroit.
All that could take three or four months, says Ms. Patterson, who now lives with her husband in Mishawaka, Ind.
Today, the Pattersons and the five children they sponsor connect much more quickly. Compassion International (No. 34) in recent years has applied 21st-century technology to the age-old practice of making donors and children pen pals. It’s a digital and communications upgrade that deepens their relationships and helps the charity retain supporters.
Here’s how it works: Children’s handwritten letters are now run through a digital translator in country. Correspondence is then sent to Colorado Springs, where it’s digitized; sponsors like Ms. Patterson get an email and then can access the letters through a web portal.
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Retaining Donors
Ms. Patterson says she now gets her replies in about a third of the time. And she can write a response online instantaneously. Such speed means she keeps in closer touch with her sponsor children: She gets eight or so letters from each annually — double what she used to receive.
The digital upgrades haven’t altered what is a deeply personal experience. “We see the child’s handwriting and the child’s drawings,” Ms. Patterson notes. Through the web portal, she sends updates about her family, including photos. “It is a back-and-forth correspondence where you’re getting to know them and they’re getting to know you,” she says — like the old days, but much faster and more convenient.
Last year, contributions to the U.S. offices of Compassion International — it has affiliates in 14 countries — jumped 10 percent, from $541 million in 2015 to $592 million. The growth was largely driven by increased sponsorships: People pay $38 a month to support a child in one of 25 countries. That makes up nearly all of its fundraising dollars.
The Christian humanitarian charity is optimistic that its donor numbers will increase this year, says Stacey Baxter, supporter retention and engagement director for Compassion. Growth will depend on the organization’s efforts to expand its presence at churches, concerts, and festivals — the venues at which people are most frequently solicited to become sponsors. “Historically it’s been somewhere between 6 and 8 percent net growth” in sponsorships annually, she says. “I’m feeling confident we’ll be close to that range again.”
But just as important as winning over new donors is keeping past supporters giving, she says. Compassion has been successful at that, too: Its retention rate has averaged about 90 percent over the past decade.
The messages between children and sponsors are a big reason, she says. Sponsors “are developing a relationship with the child, and it’s changing the child’s life,” Ms. Baxter says.
Beyond Children’s Letters
It’s not just letters from children that sponsors receive. At least once a year, a letter is sent on behalf of project directors or pastors working with Compassion in country. The messages thank donors and describe the needs of local children.
Sponsors get a regular stream of email updates filled with stories and videos about children and families helped by the nonprofit. Bloggers also write about related topics and ways for supporters to get involved. A recent headline: “5 Easy Ways to Encourage Kids to Fight Poverty.”
Every 18 months or so, Compassion sends sponsors an updated photo of the children along with information about their interests and educational progress. “It kind of helps you to know what to write your child about,” Ms. Patterson says.
In 2015, the charity rolled out a mobile app, which sponsors can use to pull up the latest photo and information about the children. Ms. Patterson says she sometimes shows her friends the children she’s supporting. She can also read a child’s message anywhere: “I can be waiting in line somewhere, and I can read the letter from my child.”
Ms. Patterson says the connections she’s built with the children are what’s kept her on board with Compassion. In October, she decided to sponsor another child, 6-year-old Jean, in Haiti.
She adds: “The relationship that I’ve had with my past sponsor children and knowing the difference that sponsorship made in their lives now that they’re adults — how far they’ve come, what they’ve overcome — motivates me to continue with another child.”
