Child Sponsorship
August 25, 2007 - 23.56Yesterday evening the doorbell rang. Typically I don’t answer the door because I know no one is looking for me. But since my parents were both busy and didn’t seem to have heard the doorbell, I went downstairs to check out who was there. It turns out to the two Plan Canada canvassers looking for child sponsors. Well sponsoring a child had cross my mind before but I never took action to actually sign up for one. Since the opportunity is here, I figured why not. After conversing a bit, getting to know their program, cost of sponsoring, payment methods, I signed up. I was given several profiles to choose from. They were all from African countries. Not really knowing anything about those countries, I mentioned it was a bit hard to pick. So one of the canvasser, Katie, showed me a map, listing all the countries that Plan Canada provide aid at. She said I can choose from those countries instead of picking from the profile booklets. I picked China. Although I wouldn’t mind to be helping out in any other countries, China felt a bit closer. Now, I am expecting a welcome kit in 1-2 weeks which will include the profile of the Chinese girl I will be sponsoring. Door-to-door canvassing can be risky. I hope this is not some hoax. No money had be deducted from me yet. They had badges, and canvaser numbers. The forms, profiles, maps looked real. I’ve check with the website and the information provided is similar. I wonder if I should contact Plan Canada to make sure they are real…. It’s hard to do charity these days eh?
Aside from that I looked up their fund usage information.About81.5% of donation is used directly in providing help. There’s around 10% used for fundraising and the rest is administrative overhead. According to a book I’ve read, it is recommended to choose charities that passes through over 75% of donations to those in need. Plan Canada had been a non-profit organization for 70 years. It has a registered charity which means I get tax breaks. =]
