Child Sponsorship Charities

Here we list, link to and compare the twenty or so UK charities we have come across who offer child sponsorship, to help you choose the best charity for you. We explain our understanding of what happens to your money with each and whether the sponsored child benefits directly from the sponsorship. We try to give a fair and honest comparison. We apologise if we have got any facts wrong. We are not an independent reviewer of child sponsorship charities (nor are "comparison" websites which get paid for referrals). We feel lucky that we can use all our sponsorship income to help children. Other sponsorship models have their advantages too. We give the websites of most child sponsorship charities (not World Vision because they request people not to link to them). If any other charity listed here would rather not be listed please let us know. For the sake of argument we list the charities in approx order of size, measured by the number of countries they work in:

Sponsoring a Child with SOS Children

SOS Children (or SOS Children's Villages) work in 123 countries and offer child sponsorship in over 100. This includes most of the developing world. SOS is primarily an orphan charity, caring for orphaned and abandoned children (Aids Orphans, Street children, war orphans, disaster orphans etc.), and preventing family break up. Sponsorship mainly pays for providing a loving family for these children. No Sponsorship income is used for UK costs. Less than a third of SOS Children's international income is from sponsorship, and it raises much of its funds directly in the developing world. In the UK SOS have a very low advertising spend and mainly spread by "word of mouse".

Sponsoring a Child with World Vision

World Vision  work in "nearly 100 countries" and offer child sponsorship in many of these. World Vision is a community development charity, not a child charity and do not generally directly care for children. The sponsored child gets a small gift for agreeing to be on the sponsorship programme, and funds are spent in the community. They say "World Vision unapologetically takes a community-based approach to development – a fact we publicly promote at every opportunity...(lengthy quotation shortened)... while sponsored children may receive some direct benefits – like school materials or a jacket for warmth – this in no way represents the entirety of our work in a community". World Vision is an Evangelical Christian relief, development and advocacy organization and a member of the World Evangelical Alliance. They have a high profile TV and print advertising presence in the UK.

Actionaid work in 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Central and South America. They are probably the best and most prominent fundraisers in the UK market (with impressive TV ads and clever use of celebrities). The model for sponsorship they use is similar to World Vision and Plan except as far as we can tell with Actionaid more of the funds are used for political action and campaigning on behalf of communities and less for directly helping them on the ground. The CEO of SOS Children still sponsors two children through Actionaid (as well as through SOS).

Sponsoring a child with Plan UK

Plan UK work in 49 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Central and South America. They describe themselves as a "child-centred community development organisation".  Plan is one of the longest established sponsorship charities and their  approach to child sponsorship has evolved over their 70 year history. They now work with whole communities rather than individual children. Since mid 2009 for each £1 in sponsorship received, 80% is spent on projects and at least 72% is spent in the country where the child lives.

So when you sponsor a child with Plan, your money goes to community development projects in your sponsored child's country, for example providing clean water, education, healthcare or sanitation. 

Sponsoring a child with Compassion UK

Compassion UK work in 25 countries. As far as we can tell they do take a more active role in the lives of the children who are sponsored through them, and will pass on money to the child's family. They are a strongly Evangelical Christian organisation, who work only through local churches and their mission is for every sponsored child to become a Christian adult. They use sponsorship funds for projects in the children's community including spreading the Gospel.

Sponsoring a child with EveryChild UK

EveryChild works in eleven countries and is currently offering sponsorships in Malawi, India and Cambodia. Sponsorship payments are treated as unrestricted contributions to EveryChild’s worldwide work. EveryChild’s projects are focused on ensuring children grow up within the care and safety of a a family environment

Sponsoring a child with other sponsorship charities

The remaining charities as far as we know operate in six countries or less, very often in one. In general they have well under a thousand sponsors in the UK. In general the smaller charities tend to have a model closer to the SOS Children model, in that they really do have a close relationship with the children. They are often a single school or orphanage which has been visited by tourists from the UK and now they have a few hundred supporters. Some of them originated like this and now have a handful of projects. Small charities like this come and go so please let us know of amendments.

Abaana:

A small Christian organisation working in mainly Uganda with one project in Zambia.

ACT:

African Child Trust is a small niche charity specifically to help the education of children of widows in Zambia, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Uganda and Tanzania. Money from child sponsorship as far as we can see directly benefits the child and widow.

Equipe:

Equipe is a small charity working in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. It is not entirely clear to us whether sponsorship funds are pooled but sponsored children appear to directly benefit.

Heal:

Heal is a small charity with four projects in India and about 200 sponsored children. It is run on a volunteer basis by an Cambridgeshire doctor and we admire the fact the volunteer aspect. Funds given in child sponsorship directly benefit the sponsored child.

Thai Children's Trust:

Formerly the Pattaya Orphanage Trust is a well established charity focusing on orphans in Thailand. They offer the 1500 children who live with them for sponsorship (so the sponsored children get complete care from the charity) but also have projects in the community for street kids, refugee children, tsunami orphans and children with disabilities. They have thousands of sponsors in the UK, and complete online services for sponsors.

ICT:

International Childcare Trust is a small charity which does not run its own operations in developing countries but funds local partners in six countries in Asia and Africa. As far as we can tell 10% of funds received for sponsorship go on UK admin costs and 90% of funds received are handed over to local partners to be used to benefit children including your sponsored child.

Kingscare:

Kingscare is a strongly Christian organisation which organises sponsorship of school students via a network of local churches. The churches propose the students and manage the funds.

Lily Foundation:

The Lily Foundation is small and cares for orphans in the Congo. The sponsored children are generally orphans they care for.

Out of Afrika:

Out of Africa work only in Kenya and money from people who sponsor a child go directly to pay for the education of the sponsored child.

Enable:

Enable is a small charity working only in India but we have just found from their website that their sponsorship program is suspended as one of their managers has embezzled a considerable proportion of their funds. We are sorry for anyone who has given money for India children and had it diverted in this way.

FHI:

Food for the hungry is a Christian organisation with around 100 sponsored children but as far as we can tell the sponsored children only benefit from "projects to tackle the root cause of poverty", i.e. not directly.

RSVP:

A very small Christian organisation run by a missionary which says "sponsoring a child will allow your child to hear about Jesus and be encouraged to develop a lifelong relationship with God."

SCC:

A small education charity which allows you to sponsor a Cambodian child's schooling.

Fields of Life:

A Christian organisation in Uganda where people who sponsor a child directly pay for the child's schooling.

Project Mala:

An Indian education charity providing schooling for children from the carpet industry. Sponsoring directly supports a child's education.

ACE: A small charity supporting rural schools in South West Uganda. Sponsored children are very directly helped.