Compassion International

is a Christian child funding organization committed to the long-term progress of children living in poverty all around the planet. Compassion International with its headquarter in Colorado Springs, Colorado, operates in 26 countries including India, Bolivia, Colombia, Haiti, Mexico and Kenya. The organization distributes aid to over 1,700,000 children. Commencing 2014, Santiago Mellado is the President and CEO while Karen Kemps Wesolowski is the chairman of the board.

History 

In 1952, The Reverend Everett Swanson established The Everett Swanson Evangelistic Association to help children orphaned by war in South Korea. He journeyed there to lecture the gospel to the troops of the army but during his stay he saw children orphaned by the war. In 1953, he started to raise funds and the next year he built up sponsorship programs to aid orphans for a few dollars a month. The name of the organization changed to Compassion in 1963, motivated by Jesus' words.

Programs

Compassion facilitates those in impecunious areas using a holistic three-stage approach. This approach goes well further than simply distributing food and medical support and also engages education and training to set up the individuals for contributing back to their society.

Child Survival Program

The initial phase of Compassion's model is Child Survival plan. This program offers health care, nutrition, prenatal care, infant survival training, education and spiritual guidance, and sustain from the local church for mothers of at-risk babies.

Child Sponsorship Program

The second phase is financing of children. Children in the program are given food and clean water, education, medical care,  life-skills training and spiritual guidance from a direct funding. Financed children are chosen by the sponsors and two-way communication is persuaded between the financed child and the sponsor. As per March 2014 the cost to fund a child through Compassion is $38 for each month. There are presently more than 1 million children globally in this program. Financers are proficient to visit their funded children through trips designed by Compassion International. Compassion's objective is to offer a trip to each country every other year. Compassion organizes every facet of the trip including travel, meals, tips and gratuities, fees related to the travel, and sightseeing fares.

Leadership Development Program

The Leadership Development program is the final phase of Compassion's approach. This program is accessible to graduates of the Child Sponsorship program and offers leadership associated training from diverse sources. This program makes sure that poverty is not a barrier for tomorrow's leaders to achieve their full potential. This program is presently being combined with the Child Sponsorship Program to arrange a wider range of children for life once they graduate.

Ratings

At present, Compassion International holds a rating of 4stars out of four from Charity Navigator, a mark of "A" from the American Institute of Philanthropy and met the "20 Standards for Charity Accountability" from the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance. An experimental study published in the Journal of Political Economy demonstrated that the financing of children through Compassion International affected in considerably higher rates of children finishing school and significantly enhanced adult employment results. The study, carried out by Professor Bruce Wydick of University of San Francisco and relating over 10,000 individuals in six countries, illustrated that the Compassion child backing program improved the likelihood of primary school completion by 4.0–7.7%, secondary school completion by 11.6–16.5%, and university completion by 2.1–2.4%. It also amplified the prospect of salaried employment in later life by 5.1–6.3% and the chance of white-collar employment by 6.5–6.7%.