FAQ
Follow our simple process to sponsor a child now: Sponsor a Child.
We need the following information to set up your sponsorship:
The number of children to be sponsored at $35/month ($420 per year), first and last name, address, telephone number and email address (required for sponsorship).
Approximately 80% of your contribution funds programs that directly help the child you sponsor by paying for school fees, medical bills, and supplemental nutrition.
Slightly less than 20% of your sponsorship money is allocated to administration and training. This includes training the staff who care for the children as well as launching new sites and developing programs at current sites.
Less than 1% is spent on fundraising.
**These numbers are based on financial statements from 2018
Online donations are simple, secure and maximize your sponsorship gifts to help children. Donations processed online are guaranteed secure. The GlobalFingerprints program, as part of the EFCA, benefits from secure online transactions processed through Verisign. Verisign provides a critical layer of security enabling online transactions, protecting data and safely delivering information. If you have questions or concerns about your online transaction, contact donorserv@efca.org.
Yes. You are not receiving goods or services for your support, and your gifts qualify as charitable contributions. Whether you are eligible to deduct them from state or federal taxes depends on which tax form you use and your personal situation. Please contact the IRS or a tax advisor for answers to your specific questions. At the end of the year you will receive a donation statement from the Evangelical Free Church of America for all sponsorship contributions.
Yes, we assign only one sponsor to each child.
The Evangelical Free Church of America is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, and all budgets and field expenditures are accounted for and reviewed by EFCA national office accountants under guidelines defined by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.
Each GlobalFingerprints site has a designated bookkeeper. Budgets are determined annually and each site bookkeeper submits regular reports on how funds are used.
We understand that communication from or about your child is very important to you. That’s why GlobalFingerprints staff are working diligently to provide at least two correspondences from or about your child each year. When you think of correspondence with the child you sponsor, you may expect the ability to write notes back and forth to one another. Sometimes this is possible. But there are situations where this is not feasible.
One common reason is the child is too young to correspond.
Unfortunately, another common reason children cannot correspond with sponsors is religious persecution. In countries with limited freedom for Christians, GlobalFingerprints does not tell the children in the program they have a sponsor in the United States. Instead, they are told that someone who cares about children is providing financial support to help them. GlobalFingerprints staff in these countries with limited religious freedom still share Christ with the children in the program, typically in a very open way.
Please realize, it is not always in the best interest of the child or GlobalFingerprints to highlight the connection between GlobalFingerprints and the United States. In these cases, where a child cannot correspond directly with their sponsor, someone who is in contact with the child or their care worker will provide updates on how your child is doing.
We try to update sponsors twice a year but providing updates can be difficult. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, some of our care workers travel nearly 100 miles (each way) through the jungle by bicycle to visit sponsored children. Add to that the fact there is very limited internet access and you can imagine the difficulty. We are continually working to improve our communication system so our correspondence will be more timely. But we are also very grateful for your patience as we work toward improvement.
If you have not been receiving updates from or about your child, let us know. We’ll try to figure out where the breakdown is occurring and will work to get you an update on how the child is doing. Contact us: (800) 745-2202 or globalfingerprints@efca.org
We ask our sponsors to make a long-term commitment to sponsorship. This would mean sponsoring a child until they graduate from secondary school or from a vocational school. In many countries a student may not graduate until their early twenties, especially if they did not start school at age 5 or 6.
While we hope that you will continue your sponsorship for several years, we recognize that sponsors’ circumstances sometimes change and they are unable to maintain their support. With this in mind, you may choose to discontinue your sponsorship at any time. If you must discontinue your sponsorship we ask that you email us globalfingerprints@efca.org or call (800)745-2202 to let us know as soon as possible so that we might immediately find a new sponsor for the child.
GlobalFingerprints does not discontinue a child’s sponsorship, even if their original sponsor is unable to continue their sponsorship.
It is very difficult for GlobalFingerprints to deliver special gifts to the children, especially in Congo where there is no mail system and the child supervisors ride hundreds of miles each month on a bicycle.
If you would like to send something to your child, please realize that it could take up to 6-months for your envelope to get to the child, depending upon when we next have staff traveling to the area.
We request that it all be contained in a flat envelope and that the child’s name and ID number be written clearly on the outside of the envelope. Suggestions for contents include: a family photo, pictures drawn by your children, a couple of pencils, balloons or barrettes. Please do not include candy, gum or any other food items. Email globalfingerprints@efca.org to find out where to mail your envelope.
If you would like to do more for your child than your monthly sponsorship, other ideas include:
- Regularly pray for your child and interceding for their needs
- Participate in some of the special giving projects to raise money to meet extra needs of the children
- Advocate for GlobalFingerprints and encourage others in your small group and church to sponsor children through GlobalFingerprints
No. Bringing a child to visit the U.S. is not permitted for several reasons, including health and travel safety issues, culture shock, language barriers and difficulty for the child in readjusting to his/her life after returning home. Most of these children lack any ID cards as well, so passports and visas would be very difficult to obtain.
A child qualifies for GlobalFingerprints sponsorship when they have an area of risk and vulnerability in their life. Those vulnerabilities vary from country to country. For example, the child might be at risk or vulnerable to malnourishment, lack of education, or unsafe living conditions. The needs of potential children are assessed first. Those with the greatest needs are accepted into the GlobalFingerprints sponsorship program and a sponsor for them is sought. We also make an effort to include many children from a variety of religious backgrounds so they can learn about Jesus Christ and the hope found in the gospel.
GlobalFingerprints will help meet the physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual needs of each child sponsored. Your sponsorship provides:
- Education (tuition, uniforms, shoes, books and supplies)
- Healthcare (preventative education, vaccines, clean water, diagnosis/treatment by doctors)
- Nutrition education and supplementation
- Social development (healthy relationships, Biblical world view, character, boundaries)
- Spiritual teaching, nurture and an invitation to participate in a local church when one is available