Compassion partners with a local church to create a “project”. There is no big sign saying “Sign your kids up for Compassion here!”

Compassion International determines how many children are being sponsored, and how many will be sponsored (based on tours by people like Shaun, and church speakers by people like me – we all register and Compassion determins how many packets we will need…) and then divides them up in whatever way they do, and then a new local church project (or an existing church) will hear from Compassion: “Ok, find the 10 (or whatever) most needy kids, and let’s get them registered.” The local church (generally the pastor since he know all the families) determines the need based on several factors, including how long the child/family plans to be in the area (if they are planning to move, for example, they won’t register them) and of course, spiritual, physical, social needs.

The key is to find a good balance… you don’t want to register too many children so that they sit too long and don’t get sponsored, that could be disasterous for the child (even though they begin to receive the benefits of Compassion immediately) and if not enough children are signed up, then events will run out of packets, and then children that could have been sponsored, won’t be, or people that would have sponsored, won’t.

Hope that explains it clear enough.

How do kids register for Compassion?  Is there a cut-off?  Just curious, since you mentioned it.