For decades, humanitarian charities have asked donors to sponsor children in the developing world and given them the opportunity to choose the child they wanted to help. Donors and the children they sponsor sometimes exchange letters and photos and have relationships that last many years. Now World Vision U.S. has come up with a new twist: giving children the opportunity to pick their sponsors.
The new program, called Chosen, is an effort to empower beneficiaries and reinvigorate donors whose giving has largely remained flat in recent years.
“The number of kids that we want to serve around the world is so large,” says Edgar Sandoval, president of the evangelical anti-poverty organization, which ranked 24th on the Chronicle’s 2018 list of the nonprofits that receive the most cash support. “I see a great opportunity to reinvigorate and use some fresh innovative approaches to invite people into sponsorship."[[video url="https://youtu.be/XcmJtNIOxm4" align="center” size="full-width” class="" starttime="" caption="" credits="World Vision”]]
A Promising Pilot
In February, World Vision introduced Chosen to prospective donors at a large Chicago church. In June, they began promoting the program at a second church in Tucson, Ariz. And last weekend, the group introduced it to four additional churches across the country. Big Daddy Weave, a Christian rock band that has traveled to locales where the charity works and promoted child sponsorship for more than a decade, started promoting it at its concerts. More than 2,500 sponsors signed up before the official launch.
Here’s how it works: Charity staff and volunteers use photo stations to take donors’ pictures and help them set up the recurring donations. Donors also have the option of completing the process online using a photo they already have or snapping a selfie.
When people sign up, they provide their financial information and make their first monthly donation of $39. The photos are then sent to communities in countries where the charity works. In-country staff organize “choosing parties” about every two weeks where children select a donor or family. Shortly afterward, donors find out which child has chosen them.
“Once people realize that they can, with a small gesture, put the power to choose in a child’s hands, something profound happens,” Sandoval says. “There’s a sense of anticipation about, ‘Wow, we just had our photo taken and now it’s on its way to a community in Kenya or Guatemala and there’s going to be a choosing party and somebody is going to choose us among the different faces and photos.’ " That builds in a new level of anticipation and excitement for the donor, he says.
Response rates vary, but leaders are encouraged: In some settings the charity has seen response rates more than double, compared with historic levels at similar events.
Flat Growth
About 2.3 million donors sponsor children through nonprofits in the United States, according to an estimate done by a group of the top child-sponsorship organizations. As of August, World Vision had 768,418 child sponsors. In fiscal year 2018, the charity raised $349 million from those donors, including both their monthly gifts of at least $39 and additional contributions from them. Those donations made up about 31 percent of the charity’s total revenue, its biggest source of income. Over the past three years, World Vision has charted an average 1 percent annual decrease in total sponsor contributions, and the number of new child sponsors signing on has also seen a slight drop.
Charity officials attribute that to a few things. In addition to sponsorship, World Vision serves children through other relief efforts in situations where sponsorship is not possible. In recent years, the charity has been increasing its efforts to serve children and communities in places like South Sudan and Syria. That requires staff to sometimes put a priority on other fundraising efforts at the expense of sponsorship fundraising.
In addition, the 2017 bankruptcy of Family Christian Stores, which had been responsible for as many as 28,000 new sponsors a year, was a likely factor in some declines.
Officials also point to changes among new generations of donors. The sponsorship relationship has remained largely the same for decades.
Traditionally, donors could choose a child with a birthday or a name that holds special meaning for them or based on the country in which the child lives. They will still be able to do that. But World Vision will be raising awareness about Chosen during the last quarter of the year and beyond.
Sandoval says that charities like World Vision must constantly look for ways to innovate. “Our greatest hope is that more people will be interested in getting a new way to enter into this process and be even more rewarded as a result of being chosen,” he says. “Hopefully we dramatically increase the number of people interested in sponsorship and can keep them helping more kids for longer periods of time.”
Eden Stiffman reports on nonprofit trends and fundraising for the Chronicle. She also writes a popular weekly fundraising newsletter . Email Eden or follow her on Twitter .
