Comparing Charities - Sponsorship Charities

How to Choose a Charity

I am filling out the paperwork to sponsor a child from Haiti through Compassion International. I decided to look into Compassion and compare it to World Vision, another sponsorship charity I am familiar with from radio advertisements.

Compassion's site lists annual reports going back three years, and a pie chart depicting how contributions are spent. They are independently audited and audits include visits to overseas children and projects.
I also found an independent report on Give.org, and the Chief Exec's $206k/year salary, which included benefits and expense allowances, caught my eye. Of course, I think if he is a talented fund raiser and administrator he should be well-paid, but that just seemed like a lot. I am probably naïve about it, and if he's travelling to the various projects throughout the year, his travel expense could easily be a major part of his compensation.

I found a report on World Vision on Give.org, and their Chief Exec makes $407k/year, including bennies and allowances. I guess I'll stop complaining about the Compassion head honcho! Then I stumbled across the Top 25 Compensation Packages for charity CEO's and presidents on Charitywatch.com, and I am now completely comfortable with Compassion's chief executive compensation. According to Compassion's financials, they brought in about $258 million in 2006 donations. World Vision's financials report $944 million in 2006. Compassion Project uses just under 84% of income for the child ministry and World Vision uses 87%. World Vision's admin costs are lower than Compassion's so World Vision may be a bit more streamlined. World Vision works in the U.S. as well as abroad, where Compassion's projects are outside of the United States.

Both Compassion Project and World Vision are listed in the top rated child sponsorship charities on the American Institute of Philanthropy website.

I'm off to mail in my sponsorship form!
More Tips on How to Choose a Charity

Latest Personal Budgeting Articles by Shelley Elmblad

Compassion Project - Christian Charity Sponsor Program
World Vision - Christian Charity Sponsor Program
About Give.org - Research Charities

Real Time Local Weather Map

How cool is this? Real time radar! To use Weather.com's Interactive Weather Map (beta), I had to place my mouse pointer on the map and left click, then drag my area to the center of the screen. From there I zoomed in using the Satellite slider and re-centered as needed.

We have sunshine and no precip (yay-first time in days) today so will have to take another look-see when there is something for the radar to pick up.

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