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Sponsoring children in the DR through Children International (warning, long)
Make a statement or something..
If not a "Charity Thread" A statement like "Remember the DR kids when you visit, bring school supplies, sponsor a child" Something that is just posted somewhere on DR1 that may be a flashing sentence across the bottom of the Home page or something..Not trying to advertise specific groups...Just trying to make travelers aware of a need inthe DR.
Pam
If not a "Charity Thread" A statement like "Remember the DR kids when you visit, bring school supplies, sponsor a child" Something that is just posted somewhere on DR1 that may be a flashing sentence across the bottom of the Home page or something..Not trying to advertise specific groups...Just trying to make travelers aware of a need inthe DR.
Pamwww.idealist.org
Excellent websource.
Chris, the topic of the week is "Before you start any non-profit".....
Searching the site led me to www.deafconnection.org, a world-wide nonprofit doing what we want to do...maybe we need to contact them.....
Excellent websource.
Chris, the topic of the week is "Before you start any non-profit".....
Searching the site led me to www.deafconnection.org, a world-wide nonprofit doing what we want to do...maybe we need to contact them.....
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update....
Only if you?re really interested in the original post should you read any further, this gets pretty boring. I just got the ?list? in the mail of the things that were bought with my birthday donations for 2 of the 4 sponsored children, the ones with birthdays in July. They each got new jeans and new shoes. They each got a new mattress to sleep on. The little girl?s looks like a rollaway bed in the picture. The little boy?s is only a mattress and, honestly, I don?t know how it?s going to fit in that little shack. I hope they measured first. Other things on the list are:
Cooking Oil, Milk, Rice, Tomato Sauce,
Chlorine, Beans, Sugar, Toilet paper,
Corn Flake, Noodles, Sardines, Pasta,
Toothpaste, Meat, Soap, Chicken Bouillon,
Salami, Gelatin, Garlic, Onion,
Electric Fan, Egg, Bread, Knapsack,
Pencil, Pot, Soda, Detergent,
Ketchup, Cookies,
I got an additional letter of thanks from each of the kids, however, the letter from the little girl (Anisberca, see Media Gallery) was written by her older sister, which is normal because Ani cannot write well yet, but her ?letter? was just a reiteration of the printed list of items. ?Thank you for the milk, rice, etc??? the whole list. Oh well?
SLM
Only if you?re really interested in the original post should you read any further, this gets pretty boring. I just got the ?list? in the mail of the things that were bought with my birthday donations for 2 of the 4 sponsored children, the ones with birthdays in July. They each got new jeans and new shoes. They each got a new mattress to sleep on. The little girl?s looks like a rollaway bed in the picture. The little boy?s is only a mattress and, honestly, I don?t know how it?s going to fit in that little shack. I hope they measured first. Other things on the list are:
Cooking Oil, Milk, Rice, Tomato Sauce,
Chlorine, Beans, Sugar, Toilet paper,
Corn Flake, Noodles, Sardines, Pasta,
Toothpaste, Meat, Soap, Chicken Bouillon,
Salami, Gelatin, Garlic, Onion,
Electric Fan, Egg, Bread, Knapsack,
Pencil, Pot, Soda, Detergent,
Ketchup, Cookies,
I got an additional letter of thanks from each of the kids, however, the letter from the little girl (Anisberca, see Media Gallery) was written by her older sister, which is normal because Ani cannot write well yet, but her ?letter? was just a reiteration of the printed list of items. ?Thank you for the milk, rice, etc??? the whole list. Oh well?
SLM
Hi SLM - As MaineGirl and I are in the early days of a non-profit adventure, perhaps you can help us by telling us what news you would have wanted to hear. I've tried as much as possible to keep contributors up to date with what their contribution bought - so, I'm looking at your response and going - Oh Well! another thing I did wrong.
What would you have wanted to hear? What would have been better feedback than a list of things bought?
What would you have wanted to hear? What would have been better feedback than a list of things bought?
Well.......
I try to be brief (ha!), so some details got left out on purpose. In addition to the donation, I sent along a birthday card that was in spanish, and inside the card I wrote a long note, or a short letter, depending on how you gauge that sort of thing. The letter was telling them that I was returning in November, asking how the little girl was doing in school, did she like school, how was her mom doing. Her mom is having some medical problems and it must be something more than the flu, because it's the older sister that writes to me on behalf of the sponsored child and through ten or so sponsored children that I've had, the moms always write for the kids.
Maybe they could have told the sister that there was no need to mention everything on the list because a printed list was going to be enclosed. There was no acknowledgement of the receipt of the birthday card, nothing about my upcoming visit, and not one single word about school. I guess that's the one thing about this organization that irks me from time to time. I go through the trouble to send cards in their language, write letters that don't have to be translated, saving the staff valuable time. I don't ask personal, probing, inappropriate questions. I encourage them, exhort them to stay in school and try hard and then I get a form letter back.
At this point, I don't even know if they got the birthday card I sent. I guess at a mimimum, that should be acknowledged. That would have been nice to know. The rest I can deal with by and by.
Does that kind of information help at all? I hope so. I really do.
st louis mike,
at your service
I try to be brief (ha!
), so some details got left out on purpose. In addition to the donation, I sent along a birthday card that was in spanish, and inside the card I wrote a long note, or a short letter, depending on how you gauge that sort of thing. The letter was telling them that I was returning in November, asking how the little girl was doing in school, did she like school, how was her mom doing. Her mom is having some medical problems and it must be something more than the flu, because it's the older sister that writes to me on behalf of the sponsored child and through ten or so sponsored children that I've had, the moms always write for the kids.Maybe they could have told the sister that there was no need to mention everything on the list because a printed list was going to be enclosed. There was no acknowledgement of the receipt of the birthday card, nothing about my upcoming visit, and not one single word about school. I guess that's the one thing about this organization that irks me from time to time. I go through the trouble to send cards in their language, write letters that don't have to be translated, saving the staff valuable time. I don't ask personal, probing, inappropriate questions. I encourage them, exhort them to stay in school and try hard and then I get a form letter back.
At this point, I don't even know if they got the birthday card I sent. I guess at a mimimum, that should be acknowledged. That would have been nice to know. The rest I can deal with by and by.
Does that kind of information help at all? I hope so. I really do.
st louis mike,
at your service
Where? When? How?
You tell people to bring things for the schools and kids and such. Ok. They bring stuff. They'er in a resort of city hotel. Then what? They magically go to some kids somewhere in a school where they'er needed? Don't you think it would be nice for you to tell peoiple what to do with the stuff once they get it here. Most people don't have any idea. I know I never did. I always heard people saying these countries needed stuff but who do you give the stuff to?
Maybe you need to tell people the details.
I used to sponsor a boy through Compassion Int. In South Africa. It was like you said but they didn't have the $100 stipulation at that time. I really enjoyed that and my son liked telling people he had a black brother.
You tell people to bring things for the schools and kids and such. Ok. They bring stuff. They'er in a resort of city hotel. Then what? They magically go to some kids somewhere in a school where they'er needed? Don't you think it would be nice for you to tell peoiple what to do with the stuff once they get it here. Most people don't have any idea. I know I never did. I always heard people saying these countries needed stuff but who do you give the stuff to?
Maybe you need to tell people the details.
I used to sponsor a boy through Compassion Int. In South Africa. It was like you said but they didn't have the $100 stipulation at that time. I really enjoyed that and my son liked telling people he had a black brother.
SLM, yes, the information helps a lot thank-you. I think also that it has to do with spending money. It is much cheaper to prepare a form letter and send that, than to do the individual thing. This is exactly what I've been wondering about - In our case here, I've tried to personally thank everyone that gave us a donation. But, I know there are some people that I've missed. In the case of Jaqueline, she cannot write, her mom cannot write or read and her sister writes -- uhm -- just a little bit. Her dad is busy with his job and to get personal letters written, would be my responsibility. I would have to sit with Dad, and get these written.
I was thinking of asking the family to prepare a progress report and scan it and post it on the web site (which does not have the necessary content up yet). And then write a 'form' e-mail to everyone that has contributed, with a link to the progress report. And vice versa, get everyone's correspondence on the web for everyone to see. Obviously blanking out names where contributors prefer to remain anonymous. This will save a lot of money in our circumstances.
How would you feel about this method of communication?. Would you think that this would be adequate? Too public?
I was thinking of asking the family to prepare a progress report and scan it and post it on the web site (which does not have the necessary content up yet). And then write a 'form' e-mail to everyone that has contributed, with a link to the progress report. And vice versa, get everyone's correspondence on the web for everyone to see. Obviously blanking out names where contributors prefer to remain anonymous. This will save a lot of money in our circumstances.
How would you feel about this method of communication?. Would you think that this would be adequate? Too public?
Another long post by SLM
The clearer I try to make things, the more I seem to muddy them up. I?ll try again.
On the subject of bringing things into the country for the population at large: I don?t know much about this, but other people do. In this thread there are mentions of where to take stuff and who to contact. When I do bring stuff, it?s for my sponsored kids only. Not knowing much about what people need most, I prefer to send money to a local organization, in this case Children International, and let them use their many years of experience to decide how best to spend the money on the children in their care.
I suppose if I was staying at a resort and I had a suitcase full of school supplies, I?d get a cab, have him take me to the local school and leave the stuff with the principal or highest ranking administrator available. If I had clothes and stuff like that, I?d try to find out if there was a local charitable agency that handled that sort of thing. Then I would get a cab and take the stuff there. That couldn?t take 90 minutes out of anybody?s vacation, I wouldn?t think. Maybe there's a better way, but that's how I'd do it.
OK, now as to running your non-profit and how to deal with contributors. I don?t think there?s enough time to personally thank every contributor and I don?t think it?s really a good use of anybody?s time either. The idea of a generic letter with a link to a progress report sounds perfect to me. If it was me, I would personalize each letter only as to acknowledging the specific donation, as in ?Thank you for your recent donation of $50? or ?Thank you for your recent donation of clothes and school supplies.? This also may be required by law, because people tend to take deductions on their Fed Income Tax for charitable contributions.
Now, you may or may not decide to institute a separate recognition level for those contributors who give over and above what the ?average? contributor gives. These are all your personal decisions and you may decide for simplicity?s sake to just treat everybody the same whether they give five dollars or five hundred. I have no problem with that as long as everybody knows the rules and plays by them.
In the specific case of Children International, they have set their ?special recognition? level at a one-time $100 donation over and above your standard $15 a month contribution. I discovered this by accident. One time I sent a bunch of money for Christmas, not giving it much thought, and, lo and behold, in the mail two months later comes all these pictures and a special thank-you letter and a list of what they bought. Well, I kinda liked that. So I?ve kept it up.
When I used the term ?form letter? I was making reference to an earlier post in which I said that the letters the children write, or have written for them because they can?t write yet, all seem to be the same. I can give you a short sample. ?Dear sponsor, I hope you and your family are well. I am well, thank God. I like to play with my friends and help my mother clean the house. I like school and my grades are good. My favorite subject is Math. Thank you for all your help. Your sponsored child, Ramon.? I could show you fifteen or twenty letters that vary from this formula only slightly. And as I?ve already said, this is OK. I have no problem with this. The translators then don?t really have to translate, they just copy the english version. Saves time and money.
What I don?t like is getting this same style form letter when I have sent a special gift, a card, and some simple questions. They?re going to have to write something that needs real translation anyway, so why not acknowledge the receipt of the birthday card (which comes from me personally, not from Children International) and why not make some attempt to answer the sponsor?s questions? For all I know at this point, that card is in a landfill somewhere. That can be a little frustrating.
That?s why I say acknowledging the specific gift is the ideal. It?s the ?warm fuzzy? feeling that I think most of us are after. As much as I hate this word, it?s ?closure? on that particular transaction. You received what I sent you, that which I put a lot of time and thought into. That?s comforting. If you sent a valentine to your long-distance sweety, wouldn?t you want to know the same thing? I think you would.
None of this is enough to ever cause me to stop being a sponsor. I would just do one or two things a little differently.
Mike
The clearer I try to make things, the more I seem to muddy them up. I?ll try again.
On the subject of bringing things into the country for the population at large: I don?t know much about this, but other people do. In this thread there are mentions of where to take stuff and who to contact. When I do bring stuff, it?s for my sponsored kids only. Not knowing much about what people need most, I prefer to send money to a local organization, in this case Children International, and let them use their many years of experience to decide how best to spend the money on the children in their care.
I suppose if I was staying at a resort and I had a suitcase full of school supplies, I?d get a cab, have him take me to the local school and leave the stuff with the principal or highest ranking administrator available. If I had clothes and stuff like that, I?d try to find out if there was a local charitable agency that handled that sort of thing. Then I would get a cab and take the stuff there. That couldn?t take 90 minutes out of anybody?s vacation, I wouldn?t think. Maybe there's a better way, but that's how I'd do it.
OK, now as to running your non-profit and how to deal with contributors. I don?t think there?s enough time to personally thank every contributor and I don?t think it?s really a good use of anybody?s time either. The idea of a generic letter with a link to a progress report sounds perfect to me. If it was me, I would personalize each letter only as to acknowledging the specific donation, as in ?Thank you for your recent donation of $50? or ?Thank you for your recent donation of clothes and school supplies.? This also may be required by law, because people tend to take deductions on their Fed Income Tax for charitable contributions.
Now, you may or may not decide to institute a separate recognition level for those contributors who give over and above what the ?average? contributor gives. These are all your personal decisions and you may decide for simplicity?s sake to just treat everybody the same whether they give five dollars or five hundred. I have no problem with that as long as everybody knows the rules and plays by them.
In the specific case of Children International, they have set their ?special recognition? level at a one-time $100 donation over and above your standard $15 a month contribution. I discovered this by accident. One time I sent a bunch of money for Christmas, not giving it much thought, and, lo and behold, in the mail two months later comes all these pictures and a special thank-you letter and a list of what they bought. Well, I kinda liked that. So I?ve kept it up.
When I used the term ?form letter? I was making reference to an earlier post in which I said that the letters the children write, or have written for them because they can?t write yet, all seem to be the same. I can give you a short sample. ?Dear sponsor, I hope you and your family are well. I am well, thank God. I like to play with my friends and help my mother clean the house. I like school and my grades are good. My favorite subject is Math. Thank you for all your help. Your sponsored child, Ramon.? I could show you fifteen or twenty letters that vary from this formula only slightly. And as I?ve already said, this is OK. I have no problem with this. The translators then don?t really have to translate, they just copy the english version. Saves time and money.
What I don?t like is getting this same style form letter when I have sent a special gift, a card, and some simple questions. They?re going to have to write something that needs real translation anyway, so why not acknowledge the receipt of the birthday card (which comes from me personally, not from Children International) and why not make some attempt to answer the sponsor?s questions? For all I know at this point, that card is in a landfill somewhere. That can be a little frustrating.
That?s why I say acknowledging the specific gift is the ideal. It?s the ?warm fuzzy? feeling that I think most of us are after. As much as I hate this word, it?s ?closure? on that particular transaction. You received what I sent you, that which I put a lot of time and thought into. That?s comforting. If you sent a valentine to your long-distance sweety, wouldn?t you want to know the same thing? I think you would.
None of this is enough to ever cause me to stop being a sponsor. I would just do one or two things a little differently.
Mike
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Sorry, I have to address this issue
I was in a church one time, about 20 years ago, that decided to send a "missionary" to some other country. The "missionary" was a member of the congregation who said he had felt a "calling" to this particular country. Well, I won't go into a lot of details, but my final decision was that I was not going to contribute to his cause. Not only me, the majority of the friends that I had at that church decided that they weren't going to support the guy either, but some did. The pastor said that all who signed on to support the guy would remain anonymous.
After about a year, they reproduced in the Sunday bulletin a letter from this guy in which, among other things, he mentioned how he was struggling to get by each month, and so on. And then he went on to thank each of his contributors by name, and the church reproduced the letter without a single edit, as near as I could tell. I can't imagine what their intent was, but at the very least it was changing the rules in mid-stream. Man, that was so not necessary to do.
This story has no ending because I moved shortly afterward from the suburbs to hillbilly-land for 13 glorious years and lost track of most of those people. I am now reluctantly back in suburbia. Don't change the rules!
SLM
Chris said:
I was in a church one time, about 20 years ago, that decided to send a "missionary" to some other country. The "missionary" was a member of the congregation who said he had felt a "calling" to this particular country. Well, I won't go into a lot of details, but my final decision was that I was not going to contribute to his cause. Not only me, the majority of the friends that I had at that church decided that they weren't going to support the guy either, but some did. The pastor said that all who signed on to support the guy would remain anonymous.
After about a year, they reproduced in the Sunday bulletin a letter from this guy in which, among other things, he mentioned how he was struggling to get by each month, and so on. And then he went on to thank each of his contributors by name, and the church reproduced the letter without a single edit, as near as I could tell. I can't imagine what their intent was, but at the very least it was changing the rules in mid-stream. Man, that was so not necessary to do.
This story has no ending because I moved shortly afterward from the suburbs to hillbilly-land for 13 glorious years and lost track of most of those people. I am now reluctantly back in suburbia. Don't change the rules!
SLM
I have no problem with Missionaries. Especially the kids that get to go on a vacation , see a new country and come and help out a bit. But really why don't they call it by a different name. I think the money would be better spent sending it to people already here instead of paying all the plane fares to send people here. All that money collected could be put to better use than a bunch of kids going on an adventure vacation.
It just shouldn't be called a missionary thing. Its a working, helping, adventure vacation.
Many of the charitable orginizations have giant offices, nice lands around a beautiful office buildings. The "suits" have nice cars. All this is paid for with a percentage of the contributions that you send for the kids. I do know many kids are helped and if you do not have personal connections to send the money direct this way is better than nothing. But it just seems to me that there has to be a better way than going through some fat cat to help those less fortunate.
It just shouldn't be called a missionary thing. Its a working, helping, adventure vacation.
Many of the charitable orginizations have giant offices, nice lands around a beautiful office buildings. The "suits" have nice cars. All this is paid for with a percentage of the contributions that you send for the kids. I do know many kids are helped and if you do not have personal connections to send the money direct this way is better than nothing. But it just seems to me that there has to be a better way than going through some fat cat to help those less fortunate.
I'd like to weigh in, again.
Jan's idea: "A Working, Helping, Adventure Vacation." That's what I would call my last trip. My last trip I paid for out of my own pocket, and had no real strings to the church except that they had kept the money that streamed in. I made out a purchase order before I left and took petty cash to pay for things and ordered over 300 dollars worth of stuff for Damalbi.
The missionary thing...it's interesting. We met a guy in Luperon who balked when we told him we were "missionaries", this was two summers back. He said, "The church down the street entertains missionaries. They come and stay with the pastor in his air conditioned house. Then they leave and he has a new car." This really crushed my husband and I. We didn't want to leave that impression.
But this isn't about me. I do what I do because of, perhaps, "a strong moral foundation." Or maybe, it's because I have some compassion for people like my husband, who is deaf. I have a set of experiences that have impressed me so deeply that I need to share them with others. I see an imperfect world and a chance to make things different.
So, yes. There's an issue with asking for money for missions and trips. Be discerning when you see or hear about these types of activities. There's some loopy missionaries and then there's some who give blood, sweat, tears and try to stay sane in an insanely unjust situation. Every missionary has their reasons for doing what they do. It's not always a call from God. Sometimes, however, it is that perfect still small voice teasing out the best of what you have to give, even when you feel useless.
Jan's idea: "A Working, Helping, Adventure Vacation." That's what I would call my last trip. My last trip I paid for out of my own pocket, and had no real strings to the church except that they had kept the money that streamed in. I made out a purchase order before I left and took petty cash to pay for things and ordered over 300 dollars worth of stuff for Damalbi.
The missionary thing...it's interesting. We met a guy in Luperon who balked when we told him we were "missionaries", this was two summers back. He said, "The church down the street entertains missionaries. They come and stay with the pastor in his air conditioned house. Then they leave and he has a new car." This really crushed my husband and I. We didn't want to leave that impression.
But this isn't about me. I do what I do because of, perhaps, "a strong moral foundation." Or maybe, it's because I have some compassion for people like my husband, who is deaf. I have a set of experiences that have impressed me so deeply that I need to share them with others. I see an imperfect world and a chance to make things different.
So, yes. There's an issue with asking for money for missions and trips. Be discerning when you see or hear about these types of activities. There's some loopy missionaries and then there's some who give blood, sweat, tears and try to stay sane in an insanely unjust situation. Every missionary has their reasons for doing what they do. It's not always a call from God. Sometimes, however, it is that perfect still small voice teasing out the best of what you have to give, even when you feel useless.
Before this thing goes off on a real tangent.......
I want to state right now that I am neither for nor against ?missionaries? or missionary work. That?s much too large and diverse a group to be unequivocally ?for? or ?against.? Each work should be judged on its own merit, or to use the biblical term, its ?fruit.?
I used that example to illustrate a case in which some people were promised anonymity and then were ?outed? later on by the very people who made the promise. I think this is a bad thing.
This is a thread about helping children, not about missionaries. I now regret using that example.
Mike
I want to state right now that I am neither for nor against ?missionaries? or missionary work. That?s much too large and diverse a group to be unequivocally ?for? or ?against.? Each work should be judged on its own merit, or to use the biblical term, its ?fruit.?
I used that example to illustrate a case in which some people were promised anonymity and then were ?outed? later on by the very people who made the promise. I think this is a bad thing.
This is a thread about helping children, not about missionaries. I now regret using that example.
Mike
It is a pity that the word 'missionary' has picked up a bad rep.
But now, I have another question - thanks for the responses so far (and I'm not going to name names here )
Would people generally prefer to give us a one-time donation when they come down here on holiday, and can meet us and see what we are doing? or would people generally prefer to stick us on a 'credit card' somewhere for a small monthly donation? What works better generally for North American charitable people?
And also, if anyone wants to bring down clothes or school supplies, a quick note on this site would bring a lot of responses as to where needs exist at the specific time.
But now, I have another question - thanks for the responses so far (and I'm not going to name names here
)Would people generally prefer to give us a one-time donation when they come down here on holiday, and can meet us and see what we are doing? or would people generally prefer to stick us on a 'credit card' somewhere for a small monthly donation? What works better generally for North American charitable people?
And also, if anyone wants to bring down clothes or school supplies, a quick note on this site would bring a lot of responses as to where needs exist at the specific time.
One of the annoying things I have found with some recent charitable giving is that I gave a small amount on a monthly basis and was inundated with propaganda. The small amount I gave was probably used on postage to send me the junk mail.
That was set up automatically, which for me was the easiest thing.
That was set up automatically, which for me was the easiest thing.