It's been about 4 months since I sponsored a child through World Vision, and 3 months since I've written about it. If you've been thinking about child sponsorship, I feel a need to let you know ahead of time what you're getting into.

Anyways, after carefully writing a letter back to Namthip, I went out and purchased some cute stickers to include in the envelope to her. World Vision doesn't let you send anything to your child except what can fit in a standard letter envelope (and not cash), so the options are quite limited.

I realize there is a good reason for this. As I said in my first post about World Vision, sending extravagant gifts would do more harm than good to the child, her siblings, and even her neighbourhood friends.

So I sent the letter and stickers, and apparently she got them all and loved them. I received a letter back from her recently (actually, written by her sister) thanking me for them and telling me a bit more about Namthip and her family. I don't want to bother her by writing every month, forcing her to write a response, but I will write often.

So, I am here to say that sponsorship has so far been very rewarding to me personally. Your mileage may vary, of course.

World Vision, on the other hand, is an interesting organization the deal with. First, I find that they are constantly sending me mail. Well, OK, I can see some of it is necessary (like the child's letters, tax receipts, etc.) Some of it is interesting to me (updates on their tsunami relief efforts, with a request for tsunami donations.) And some of it is downright begging for money (sponsor another child, or we have a special need here). Fine, I can accept all that. I hope they get a good discount on stamps is all I can say.

(Warning, rant ahead.)

Well, today I got another letter from them. Get this - they are raising my monthly sponsorship donation by $2 per month, effective July 1st. Don't misunderstand me. They are not asking me to give more (they do that often enough), they are telling me they will start deducting more from my account unless I call them to stop it.

In Canada, we had an incident with the big cable companies where they starting adding channels to people's cable packages without their explicit permission. It started as a free 3 month preview given to all subscribers, but they then started charging for those channels once the trial period expired unless you phone them to cancel it. It's called “negative billing” - if you don't decline this automatic addition to your monthly bill, it means you accept it. It's a back-door way to sell you something, relying mostly on the lazyness of the general population.

Now, as far as the increase in World Vision's monthly donation is concerned, $2 a month is not going to bankrupt me. But I have been a sponsor for all of 4 months, and they are already poised to automatically take more out of my account. Do they do this to everyone? Wait until you've been on board a couple of months, received a couple of letters from your child, and then BAM! the rate goes up? This seems like the sales tactic of a sleazy used car salesman, and not a Christian charity. (Apologies to all non-sleazy car salesmen!)

If I had been a sponsor for 2 years, and they wanted to increase the rate to match inflation (or whatever), I wouldn't feel so bad. But raising the rate 8% after 4 months is a lousy way to start a long term relationship with donors to your charity.

Looking at their web site, it looks like they are raising the monthly donation amount for new sponsors as well. That makes me feel a little better. But their letter to me did not say that. In fact, their letter specifically says how the increase is needed to fight HIV/AIDS in Namthip's community. To drive home the personal nature of this request, they use her name 4 times in the letter, refer to her indirectly 5 times, mention my name several times... making it seem like I am the only person receiving a letter increasing the rate.

As an example of the terrible selling job they did on this automatic (except if specifically declined) increase, here's a sample from the letter:

“Many sponsors tell us it is more convenient for them if World Vision simply begins deducting the new rate from their bank withdrawal or credit card payment plan.“ --- Really? People tell you they prefer that you help yourself to their bank account without asking them first?

And, even though it looks like this increase is for everyone and not just me, I still feel a bit ticked about this negative billing. It is sleazy. Maybe it's necessary, but I didn't expect it. I didn't see it coming. I honestly expected the current monthly rate would continue at this level, forever. They should have been more clear up front how these increases work, and whoever wrote the letter should change careers.

Instead of trying to personalize this rate increase, World Vision should have depersonalized it. Tell me World Vision is raising it's rates for the first time in X years. Tell me that costs increase year after year per child, and that sponsors will have to give just a little bit more to get back to break-even. Tell me that it is going to be impossible for you to meet the needs of the currently sponsored children out there unless you raise the rate across the board. Make me feel like this is normal, and it happens from time to time. They could take a lesson on how to do this from the phone or cable company.

I think I might call them tomorrow and make a minor complaint about the wording of the letter. Hey, I love being a sponsor. I don't mind giving more. But World Vision will have to make a little better effort to save money, and be more business-like with their rate increases.

Can you imagine if the phone company wrote you a letter talking about how there has been some bad weather recently in your town, and equipment needs replacing close to your home. How your phone line is older than other homes, and is getting more expensive for them to maintain? That wouldn't happen. They would say that, effective on July 1st, the cost of basic service is going up from $21.50 to $22.20. In addition, call answer and call display are each going up $0.15 more per month. There, they just got $1 per month out of me, without personalizing it. It's not difficult to do, yeesh!

(End rant. Sorry about that.)

Today was an exciting day for me. Today I received my first letter from my sponsored child in Thailand. My sponsored child Namthip didn't even write the letter - her case worker at World Vision did. But she included a drawing, which was wonderful.

So tonight I spent about an hour writing a letter back to her, thanking her for the drawing. Now she is only 5, so I didn't write a mini-novel or anything. I just spent a lot of time picking my words, making sure it said what I wanted to say. Not too much and not too little. It's tough writing to a 5-year-old who speaks a different language, trying to make it easy for both the child and the translator.

Anyways, having such a letter and drawing from my sponsored child is now extremely important to me. The cynic in me thinks that World Vision sends this letter within the first month of sponsorship to all sponsors - that's just part of the process - to make me feel special when in fact it's nothing more than an automated process who's ultimate goal is to manipulate me to give more money. But the optimist in me, who definitely rules over the cynic most days, thinks that I could eventually develop a real bond with this child half-way around the world and is thankful that World Vision enabled that.

Yes, definitely right now they are an enabler and not a manipulator. So far. ;)

I've had an odd experience over the last week or so, and what better way is there to deal with an odd experience by blogging about it? None, I say.

This year, my mother had a brilliant idea on what our family should give each other for Christmas - nothing. We're a family that consists entirely of adults now (noone under the age of 25), and so instead of wasting our money on bobbles and trinkets, we agreed to donate to charity in each other's name.

This was indeed a brilliant idea, which I hope will continue for years to come.

In addition to purchasing some chickens and hens for a poor family in Africa (among other gifts), I also decided to get into “Child Sponsorship.” I hesitate to say an unkind word about this program, but you have to realize going in that your money does not go to that specific child whose sad picture comes included in the welcome package. Instead, it goes to support programs in that child's community.

Of course, it would be nice if some money did make its way to the specific child you think you're sponsoring, but I also realize the enormous overhead that it would take to do such a thing, so that my $30 would turn into only $10 after administrative costs are subtracted. And certainly the child sponsorship charities mention the fact that gifts of some value (money or presents) could spark jealously among other kids, which could trigger robberies and other nastiness. So, although it would be nice to send money directly to a poor child somewhere, it's probably for the best that a medical center is built, a clean water well is dug, or an elementary school is provided with textbooks.

This whole experience has given me a new outlook on charity, and I intend to continue to give all year, not just at Christmas. It's amazing.

Now here we come to the point of this post. As interested as I currently am in my child (Namthip in Wang Wiset, Thailand) and thinking of other ways to help, I am equally dumbstruck at how it appears I am the last person to discover this.

I tell my little story about how purchasing chickens led me to sponsor a child, and one of my boss' tells an amazing story of how she sponsors 4 children - one for each of her own 4 children, and of the same gender and age as her kids. One project manager I tell mentions how she sponsors 2 children. I tell another friend of mine, and he sponsors a child as well.

Hmph. That certainly takes some of the fun out of it. I mean, I still feel like giving and I definitely intend to do more, but I haven't been able to pass my joy along to anyone else yet... I'm the last one to the party.