Can I become a child sponsor through Save the Children?
Save the Children US no longer offers child sponsorship opportunities. Our pioneering spirit inspires us to continuously innovate and adapt to keep pace with the dynamic environment around us. Through this learning, we have found the most effective way to help one child in a community is to focus on systemic and sustainable solutions that can benefit all children in that community.
As a monthly supporter of Save the Children, your contributions help us provide both urgent and ongoing support to kids and entire communities, where and when it's needed most. Instead of sponsoring an individual child, this approach allows us to deliver consistent funding and high-quality programs while reducing administrative costs.
Why did you stop child sponsorship?
As the world changes, so do the needs of children. That is why Save the Children must continuously innovate and adapt —as we have for the past century— to ensure we can support children when and where they need us most.
An extensive global review and consultation of our child sponsorship programs in 2020—hearing from communities, country office staff, supporters like you and most importantly, the children themselves— revealed that we can do even more to support children and their communities when and where they need us most. Factors like conflict, extreme weather events, and growing inequality are causing more children and families to migrate, and child sponsorship lacks the flexibility to support their immediate and ongoing needs.
As a result, Save the Children made the decision to discontinue child sponsorship, transitioning to a more flexible and impactful programming approach that will support the collective needs of children and communities facing the most pressing challenges today. This change will also allow donations to reach more kids, significantly reducing administrative costs and ultimately allowing us to spend more time and funds directly on our programs. We aim to create a more inclusive experience for all children in the communities we work with, allocate resources more efficiently, and continue driving sustainable progress for children’s health, education and safety –today and for years to come.
How else can I support Save the Children on an ongoing basis?
Thank you for trusting Save the Children to help kids around the world grow up healthy, educated and safe. One of the most effective ways to support our work and help children today is recurring giving through Team Tomorrow. With your generous, ongoing commitment, we can direct more money towards programs by decreasing administrative costs and providing greater flexibility for funding to reach children most in need. Your consistent contribution also helps our program teams to better forecast and plan for the future.
We live in a highly interconnected world and cannot solve systemic issues in isolation. Save the Children is working to holistically address the needs of children and quickly adapt as these needs evolve within communities. With your sustained support, we’re consistently among the first to respond and the last to leave when an emergency strikes. We do whatever it takes for children —every day and in times of crisis— transforming their lives and the future we share.
What do monthly donors receive?
As a monthly donor, you’re part of a passionate and dedicated community of supporters. When you join Save the Children, you receive digital and print communications introducing you to the many children and communities you help support, and ongoing updates about the issues you care about most—hearing directly from the children and communities we’re working with to build a better tomorrow. Additionally, you have access to an easy-to-use, personalized online account, which is periodically updated with photos, videos and program information and where you can edit your personal details and make changes to your gift.