Sponsorship

Hope in the Dark’s sponsorship model seeks to bring the message of hope to children living in vulnerable conditions in order for their lives to be changed. The children are given the necessary help and support so they can become responsible members of society- and contributing members in their communities. While we no longer offer an individual child sponsorship program, what we do have is an opportunity for people to partner with us financially in providing for the day to day needs at each of our centers. 

In the past, we have had a model of individual child sponsorship, but over time, it became clear to us that we needed to take a different approach to offering donors opportunities to support children through Hope in the Dark. We have over 175 children attending both of our centers, and not every child was sponsored, yet this never changed the support we gave to each child. Those who were not sponsored did not receive anything less from our program or staff than those who were sponsored. However, some of our sponsored children would receive letters, and occasionally gifts from their sponsors. We found that while this was such a wonderful blessing for the children to receive these things, those who were not sponsored at times felt left out. We do not want to leave any room for divisions, jealousy, or envy between any of the children. 

Even more importantly, we work with an extremely vulnerable population of children at both of our centers. We are committed to going that extra mile in protecting them- in every way we can. This includes no longer having photos or information about our children for the purpose of acquiring sponsorship on our website. Another factor in this decision is that many of our children come from broken homes, in a very poor socioeconomic environment. This means that the likelihood of stability, whether employment, housing, or family, is quite low. At times, it is necessary for our families to have to move frequently for work, family, or even safety reasons. Some children attend our centers for a few months, others for a few years, and everything in between. 

While we know that an individual child sponsorship model is offered by other charities, we felt we could no longer continue to offer any new individual sponsorships this for the above reasons. All existing sponsorships of individual children will continue for all sponsors who have a child actively attending one of our centers. This relationship will continue until the child is no longer attending. Sponsors will be notified if this is the case, but no new individual child sponsorships will be offered. Instead, our model focuses on supporting all aspects of our programming, and all our children, in different tiers, according to what each level of sponsorship will cover. We will have more information rolling out about this change in early 2025.  

We value the support of each and every one of our donors- past, present, and future, and we continue to make it a priority to protect and serve every child God brings through our doors. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions about this change!