SOS Children launches endowed child sponsorships

Some people choose to sponsor a child and see the effect of their sponsorship as the child grows. Other people remember a charity with a legacy. However we have had repeated requests from people who wish to sponsor a child through to independence as a one off gift, some people think of this as enjoying a legacy now.

Endowing a sponsorship for a child makes particular sense with SOS Children, which is a long-term charity which is committed to taking children with nothing (generally as orphans) and helping them through to independence. People talk a lot about "poverty" which is the gap between richest and poorest: we approach poverty by taking children who are truly poor and parentless into our big family with their own mother. For some other charities without any longer term link to a given child, where there is only a geographic link to a child via a local community development project, we can see that endowing a child sponsorship would make less sense. This seems to reflect the thinking of those wishing to endow a sponsorship too.

So, we are now set up to manage endowed sponsorships. A gift of £5000 pays for 20 years sponsorship (with £10 each birthday going into a savings account for the child at independence), so you can be sure that your sponsorship carries on regardless, and you can have the updates transferred to your chosen beneficiary. Most children are obviously financially independent in less than 20 years (except where we take on children handicapped by landmines etc) in which case an residual funds will go to other children in the location of the child. Just like in a real family, SOS Children return home to their SOS family at special times of year and become some of the supporting family infrastructure for other children in need.

It’s a small price to give a child a family for life.