I've mentioned before that World Vision is one of my favorite charities, but I've never gone into detail about why I like it so much that I would voluntarily subject myself to the torture of asking my friends and family to give up their hard-earned money for my fundraising project.
I first got involved with World Vision about 3 years ago when one of my best friends from high school took a job with them and asked me to sponsor a child. She already had the child picked out for me - a little girl from Rwanda named Valerie. I agreed, and when I got the information packet, I knew we were destined to be her sponsors because not only did she share my name, but she shared a birthday with my husband. I was very impressed with World Vision from the start because they sent information about what projects they were working on in her community. My sponsorship didn't simply send her to school - it impacted her entire community with clean water, appropriate farming techniques, nutrition education, medical projects, economic development etc, all working together to create a better and healthier future for Valerie.
A major criticism I've heard about sponsorship programs in general is a skeptism that the money actually goes to that child. In many ways, that seems to be true, because the money goes to Valerie's community projects, and in effect helps not only Valerie, but everyone in her community. However my correspondence with Valerie is personal. I have sent her small gifts and she has thanked me for them. (We also sponsor a child through another Christian organization and I have sent him small gifts as well, but I never recieved aknowledgement from him that he got the gifts, but maybe that's just because he's a typical boy and hates writing thank you notes). She also always draws really cute pictures on the letters that she sends. And here's my favorite part - we are also able to give personal donations to her family. It's called a "gift notification" and the family is notified that they have recieved a gift. The World Vision staff works with the family to decide what that gift is based on the needs of the family and the amount of the donation. (Most of the donation will go directly to the family with a percentage that goes to the community projects - the percentage varies depending on the needs of the community, but World Vision was upfront about the percentage when we made the donation). Valerie's family got a cow with our gift (I didn't think I gave them that much money, so maybe they added some of their own savings) and then they sent us a picture of Valerie and her father with the cow. I just love that kind of stuff!
While in Charlotte, I joined Women of Vision (WoV), a volunteer ministry of World Vision. I got to hear from several women who have served World Vision projects on mission trips, some even had the opportunity to meet with their own sponsored children! Also, my friend who works for World Vision has also visited several projects and can attest to the impact of the work that Word Vision has on communities around the world. As an insider, her own words are a testimony to their work - she currently donates to World Vision and feel good about how they use the money. For 2007, 86% of their expenses went to programs, leaving only 14% for administrative and fundraising costs, which is considered very good in the world of charities as noted in this quote from Give.org "The BBB Wise Giving Alliance recommends that the charity should (1) spend at least 65% of total expenses on program service activities and (2) spend no more than 35% of related contributions on fund raising expenses." Charity Navigator gives it a 4-star rating, the highest rating.
In closing, in addition to supporting my own fundraising for the triathlon (donations go towards water projects in Zambia), I highly recommend child sponsorship. You link to child sponsorship through my fundraising webpage (click on link below) or though WorldVision.org.
