How long does it take for a financial gift to reach my sponsored child?

When you give a gift to your sponsored child, their family or project your gift is converted into the currency of the country where your sponsored child lives and transferred to that Compassion country office’s bank.

Once the Compassion country office receives the money, a staff member transfers the funds to the respective church-based Compassion project. Depending on their location, projects will receive the funds by cheque, or directly as a bank transfer. How often the Compassion office runs the process and how the money is transferred will affect how quickly your gift reaches your sponsored child.

If the Compassion project knows that a gift is on the way, and they have the funds available, they many choose to go ahead and purchase the gift ahead of receiving the cash. Knowing they will receive it in the next month. Others will wait until they receive the funds or arrange to meet with the family to help identify needs and how to best use the gift once it’s been received.  

If your sponsored child lives in a remote or rural location it may take even longer to securely transfer those funds as there may be more steps to the process. Electricity outages and other factors may also cause delays to this process.