Compassion International is a child sponsorship and Christian humanitarian aid organization headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado that aims to positively impact long-term development of children living in poverty, globally. As of 2019, the organization coordinated donations from at least ten participating countries, operated childhood programs in 25 impoverished countries, and involved more than two million participants, from infants through young adults, in its programs. Preliminary independent, secular research in the Journal of Political Economy studied the organisation, concluding that it had large and statistically significant impacts on participant's years of school completion, the probability of later employment, as well as the quality of that employment, in part as a consequence of increased aspirations of participating children.
History
The Everett Swanson Evangelistic Association was founded in 1952 by Everett Swanson to help children orphaned by war in South Korea.He traveled there to preach the gospel to the troops of the army, but during his visit he saw children orphaned by the war. In 1953, he began to raise funds, and the next year he developed sponsorship programs to help support orphans for a few dollars a month.The name of the association changed to Compassion, Inc. in 1963, inspired by Jesus' words "I have compassion on the multitude. I will not send them away hungry".
Compassion helps those in impoverished areas using a holistic approach to child development.This approach goes well beyond simply providing food and medical aid and also involves education and training to prepare the individuals for contributing back to their community. The organization also helps in emergency situations and for the funding of health centers.
Child sponsorship
Children in the child sponsorship Program are provided food and clean water, medical care, education, life-skills training, and spiritual guidance through a direct sponsorship. Sponsored children are selected by the sponsors, and two-way communication is encouraged between the sponsored child and the sponsor. the cost to sponsor a child through Compassion was US$38 per month, and globally there were over two million "babies, children and young adults" in its programs. Sponsors are able to visit their sponsored children through trips planned by Compassion International. Compassion's goal is to provide a trip to each country every other year. Compassion coordinates every aspect of the trip including travel, meals, tips and gratuities, fees related to the travel, and sightseeing fares. Compassion operated in India for 48 years, with its $45 million in transfers a year, making it India's largest single foreign donor. Compassion provided services under its Child Sponsor Program to 145,000 Indian children. In 2015, Compassion affiliates' offices were raided by tax investigators seeking evidence whether it was funding religious conversions. Compassion said it was then forced to direct funding to non-Christian Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh groups. Compassion refused to do so as it would be a misuse of funds that donors all around the world trusted them with. After talks back and forth, in 2017, the Government of India barred Compassion from transferring funds into India, forcing the group to close its operations in that country. The Ministry of External Affairs later clarified that the ban had nothing to do with the ideology of Compassion International.
Ratings and accountability
Compassion International is a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, holds a grade of "A" from CharityWatch, and met the "20 Standards for Charity Accountability" from the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance. Through 2015, Compassion International has received Charity Navigator's highest four star rating for 15 consecutive years, thereby receiving special recognition on their "10 Charities with the Most Consecutive 4-Star Ratings" list. However, Charity Navigator changed its rating system in 2016, Compassion International's 2016 overall rating was three stars out of four.
Outcomes
A primary research report in the Journal of Political Economy provided evidence in support of the conclusion that child sponsorship via Compassion International resulted in significant positive outcomes for the children in the study set. The research by Bruce Wydick, Paul Glewwe, and Laine Rutledge studied Compassion efforts in six countries, reporting a "large, statistically significant impacts on years of schooling; primary, secondary, and tertiary school completion; and the probability and quality of employment." They went on to note that the evidence, while early, "suggest that these impacts are due, in part, to increases in children’s aspirations."
