Child sponsorship

Child sponsorship is a type of fundraising in which a charitable organization associates a donor sponsor with a particular child beneficiary. The sponsor receives updates from the child, typically including photos and translated letters, which help create the feeling of a personal relationship with the child. The donated funds are often not spent specifically on the sponsored child, but pooled with other contributions to fund a variety of education, health, security, infrastructure, or other projects in the child's community or country. One estimate is that over 9 million children are given over US $5 billion by child sponsorship programs. Other sources state the amount of child sponsorship funding is closer to US $3 billion per year.