I’m thinking of sponsoring a child abroad now that I might actually have some disposable income. I’d like to donate to a good organization, and one that is preferably secular rather than Christian. What are some options? What are your experiences?
I’ve never sponsored a child, but I plan on doing so next year after I have my student loans paid off (budget’s very tight right now)
The organization I’ve heard the most about is World Vision, but I personally wouldn’t choose them as they’re a very religious Christian organization, and I don’t like the idea of pushing religion on someone who needs assistance.
I’ve heard good things about Foster Parents Plan (that’s what they’re called in Canada - the international organization is just called Plan). Their organization is non-religious, non-political and has no government associations. I’ve also heard they have very good transparency on where their funding goes.
To sponsor a child through Foster Parents Plan in Canada, their website says that the contribution you make is $33 per month (checking out the US Plan website, their sponsorship about is $24 US per month). You can also make one-time donations to their programs, instead of sponsoring a specific child.
Questions which involve opinions belong in IMHO. I’ll move this for you.
samclem
If there are other Dopers with experience in this area, I haven’t seen them speak up. Here are two threads where I’ve answered questions on the subject before. As I stated in the older thread, I do recommend that anyone interested in making donations to charitable organizations check them out on one or more charitable assessment sites, unless they have direct, personal knowledge of the organization’s trustworthiness and good business practices. I do note that the entry of organizations founded by various dotcom billionaires into the field of charity is precipitating a revolution in how charities are operated. They are structuring them along the same lines as for-profit organizations, IOW, results-driven operations. However, there are limitations of the applicability of that model to relief operations - particularly those involving children.
I have stored these links: Charity Navigator still appears to be the largest. The other link I have is Give.org, which prominently displays a Better Business Bureau logo. There may well be other organizations now doing the same stuff; you know how it is. If you discover any others, please post links here, so I can add them to my collection. 
I see there have been other responses while I’ve been drafting this. Good thing I saw it before it was moved, or I wouldn’t have. GQ & ATMB are the only forums I normally take time to look at.
I note your preference for secular organizations. However, I can tell you from experience that Christian Children’s Fund is carefully non-religious in their choices of children, and does not appear to proselytize. They operate freely in a number of Muslim countries, which appears to me to be a good indicator of careful neutrality. Otherwise, they’d be kicked out. Please also note from one of my earlier posts that one of “my kids” decided to be a nun. CCF is - or at least started out as - a Protestant group. To me, that’s another indicator of non-interference in local culture, as well as in the beliefs of aid recipients. Another Good Thing that they used to do (hopefully still do) was to help the parents - or at least the father (if present) - find work or learn a trade, if unemployed or underemployed. They helped my Brazilian’s father learn carpentry. And they get all the school-age kids in the family in school, another Good Thing.
You can always ask an organization what their policies are, if things like this matter to you. Instead of filling out a coupon (whether dead tree or webform), I’d get a mailing address and send a dead tree letter. This ensures that they don’t automatically assign you a kid before you know whether you want anything to do with them. Just because you’re not Warren Buffet doesn’t mean you’re not entitled to know how your money is being used.
I am not, however, urging you to choose CCF. They are the organization that I went through, and are therefore the only one about which I can speak from personal experience. I don’t know what agency I’d use today, if I had the wherewithal to donate. I do know that I’d check the ratings of any potential recipient organization on the assessment sites.
The other one that I know of is GuideStar. You can use their basic search services for no charge, or they have 2 levels of paid memberships that give you access to more detailed info. They don’t seem as easy to search as the other two, though. At least, not using the free basic service.
Just want to thank the OP for this thread - it gave me the kick up the backside to do what I’ve been meaning to do for years. 
Thank you, tygerbryght, for those links.
I sponsor a child through World Vision. I do it because they seem to get actual aid to people. I don’t like the fact that they may push Christianity on people but they do seem to do practical good.
I can vouch for orphansponsorship.org. I know one of their employees, Jen Hee (she’s on [url=“http://www.orphansponsorship.org/bulgaria/slatino/index.html”] this page), who’s also a PCV here in Bulgaria. (They have programs in other countries, but obviously I know more about their work in Bulgaria.) I don’t envy her work, she gets to see some of the worst of humanity. Almost all of the kids in her “orphanage” have parents who can’t care for them for whatever reason. Most of them are Roma, and let’s be honest, most Bulgarians don’t give a shit about what happens to poor, unloved Roma kids, so conditions aren’t very good.
Aw, fuck. I’d say that’d teach me to remember to preview, but you know that’s not true.
Good lord, you’d think charities would realize that they have to get me RIGHT NOW, while I’m thinking about it! Orphan Sponsorship’s sign up page isn’t working and the whole website for Christian Children’s Fund is down.
Strangely enough, the Google ads on this thread all seem to be “Sponsor a Child” type organizations. Click on the ads, and then run the names through the charity ratings sites and see how they come up.
Thanks for the link … I think. They require registration to use their services, and that didn’t quite register (pun not intentional) with me until they said I had to do it. The EULAlyzer result was acceptable, but did have some 6 ratings and quite a few fives. (EULAlyzer is a free ToS agreement analyzer from the folks who wrote Spyware Blaster). I took a chance and registered anyway. We’ll see what kind of mail I get from them (de-selected their options).
Guidestar also doesn’t give the financial information that Charity Navigator does. It may not be a ripoff, but it’s certainly trying to make money out of information freely available elsewhere. Will I use it again? Probably not. Now to see whether I get a gush of solicitations or business offers in my webmail account. :rolleyes: I suspect that paid members aren’t hassled, but I’ll be very surprised if I don’t at least get periodic emails inviting me to upgrade my membership (give them some money).
Sorry to sound so cynical, but I have been around the block a few times, and I don’t have to “wake up” in order to “smell the coffee.”
I also sponsor through Christian Children’s Fund, which I chose based on the fact that they do not preach to their kids. My little friend has sent me things about her Muslim culture, but she has also sent me Easter Cards.
Sponsor a kid here, for goodness sake! Our government is shitting on its people right now, and although the misery might not be as visible as in the Third World, it is just as intense for many individual families. If we can’t be socialist, we should at least take care of one another. My two cents (I know no one was asking)
Yes, I agree. In fact, now that you mention it…
I am a 21-year old child living on my own on the mean streets of Los Angeles. My shoes have holes in them and I subsist largely on 10/$10 microwaveable dinners. My studio apartment is only 288 square feet and my couch was found on the side of the road. It is falling apart and I have strapped old pillows onto the cushions because the wiring pokes out and hurts my back. I do not have cable TV, nor a cell phone, nor many of the luxuries the average American enjoys. Once a week, I scrape together my spare change (literally) to buy a milkshake from McDonald’s. That is one of the rare joys in my life. Here is my picture. For only $1-10 dollars a day, you can sponsor me and improve my quality of life. Thank you.
Forget sponsoring some kid!
Sponsor ME!
Only cause something went really really wrong in my truck Saturday night with it’s brand new engine that was just put in in August or July. I mean really bad. Like it went from Oil to No Oil in a heart beat. I accept paypal.
Sorry for the hijack.
Y’see, I was all ready to sponsor you from my lovely, comfortable, well-appointed castle (with moat) in the middle of England - was gonna send you some Queen Mary chairs, a radiogram and my shares in McDonalds … but then I grocked the pic. :eek:
So I went with ActionAid instead.
This thread is pretty much dead, but I thought you might like to know I went through Orphan Sponsorship and bought me a Sri Lankan girl. I’m at work and I don’t have her name here, but she’s 13 and in 8th grade. She has no siblings, and her mother can no longer care for her (I got the feeling from the information that the mother isn’t very interested in her.) She’s at a privately operated orphanage for girls in Panumugama, which seems to be the Sri Lankan equivalent of Buttfuck, Nebraska. It seems really like a warm and loving environment for these girls, from the pictures, but I guess warm and loving doesn’t pay the bills. I’m pretty excited about it.