A year into sponsorship with Compassion

It's been about a year since I decided to start sponsoring again with Compassion International.  So, where am I, a year into sponsoring?
I have zero Compassion kids.
Last week, I made the decision to end my partnership with Compassion, and funnel money toward other organizations that I was happy with.  This decision was not made lightly.  I thought about it after I received a "thank you" letter from Vincent, my little guy in Togo, that simply said "Thank you for the gift."  Um, it was a $100 family gift.  Maybe not a lot to Compassion, but Compassion's policies are clear.  Any gift in any amount entitles the sponsor to ask what was purchased with the gift money.  And, any gift over $60, entitles the sponsor to a picture of the child with said items.  So, I emailed Compassion to ask that an inquiry be put in for this gift.  This was the response I received initially:
"You are welcome to write back to Vincent and ask what he and his family purchased with the money you sent. It may take just as long for us to request the information from the field staff as it would to get a letter back from Vincent."

Wow. So I was supposed to write back to a 5 year old and ask him what he purchased with the $100 instead of Compassion asking the center to do its job? After an online rant on the "get satisfaction" part of Compassion's website, they did change their tune and agreed to put in an inquiry for me, but intimated that this was above and beyond what they should be doing in their response on that site.

Having had enough, I figured I'd tally up all of my inquiries and also count up how many inquires I'd asked for that I received pushback on from Compassion's customer service department.

I didn't count the 2 gifts I'd just submitted for 2 children's September birthdays. I tallied up everything else. I'd given 6 extra financial gifts in total. Of those gifts, I had to place 4 inquiries because I either hadn't heard anything after 6 months or I received a very generic "Thank you for the gifts". Of those 4 inquiries placed, I received pushback from Compassion's customer service department on 3 of them. Now, one of those financial gifts was for a correspondence child who I released almost exactly 6 months after I sent the gift. I still had not received a thank you for that gift from him, and that would have resulted in another inquiry had I not released all of my correspondence children. I did receive a letter from that child about a week before I released all of my correspondence children, and there was no mention of the gift in the letter. So really, it would have been 5 inquiries out of 6 financial gifts sent. Does that seem right or fair? Does that seem like Compassion is working to keep its word to sponsors? And, of those inquiries placed, I was initially told by Compassion staff that I could NOT place the inquiry on 3 of those inquiries.

And, let's be clear. I was not asking for anything Compassion hadn't promised its sponsors. I never asked for an inquiry to be placed before the 6 month mark. I wasn't demanding pictures for a $30 birthday gift. I was simply asking Compassion to follow its own guidelines.

During the past year, I also had to place 2 inquiries for kids who hadn't written in 6 months. Again, I received pushback from Compassion's staff on one of those inquiries. The staff member suggested I write to a 5 year old and ask her to write to me more. As if I don't put "I'm so excited to hear from you" in every letter I write to every child.

Compassion promises 6 letters per year to every sponsor, provided the sponsor is writing at least every other month. I've faithfully written once a month (or more) for the past year. My letter count for my kids I've had for about a year was as follows: Nayan wrote 6 letters, but one was the result of a gift inquiry. Archita wrote 4 letters. Vincent wrote 4 letters. Yeferson, who I had for 7 months, wrote 2 letters. Does anyone really think I would have received 4 letters in 5 months from him? It's clear to me and to most other Compassion sponsors that there is a huge problem with Compassion's correspondence. However, instead of customer service being understanding, and admitting "Yes, we are aware this is a problem, and we are working on it. We will submit this inquiry right away", they are giving sponsors pushback. Telling sponsors to wait 8 months after a gift has been received to get a response before they will submit an inquiry. Telling sponsors to simply "ask your child to write more" instead of submitting an inquiry.

I understand problems can arise in sponsorship programs, but the way Compassion has been handling their issues really makes me uncomfortable sending my money to them.




To compare, I've also had 2 World Vision kids for about a year (a couple weeks less than I've had my Compassion kids), and I've received 7 letters from Alphonsine and 8 letters from Willy. Marina, who I've had for 8 months, I've received 5 letters from. Heck, I've already received 2 letters from one of my Children International kids who I've only been sponsoring for 2 1/2 months! Also, with every gift I've sent to kids in other organizations, I've received a response well before 6 months, and it's always a detailed response, with a picture.

Based on all of that, and taking into consideration other sponsors' accounts of how Compassion has been dealing with them, I reluctantly decided to end all sponsorships with Compassion. It just didn't make sense to continue sending money to an organization that I had to fight with every time I sent a gift, and every time I didn't hear from my sponsored kids. And, amazingly, I felt so settled once I made that decision and sent that letter off to Compassion via email. In true Compassion form, I haven't heard anything back from them, and all my kids are still on my account as of this morning when the email I sent cancelling was on Thursday at 1pm, Colorado time.