Foster Friends
“ It is such a huge privilege for our family to be involved with CSC's ministry, and specifically with the Foster Friends program. We love that the program gives us real way to stay connected to CSC kids. And as a family with three young children, we especially appreciate that our entire family can be involved in praying for our Friends, and seeing the real and tangible ways God is working in their lives. There is no question, God is doing amazing work through the staff and supporters at CSC ... we feel so grateful that the Foster Friends program allows us the opportunity to be even a small part of it. ” - Trent and Melissa Nelson
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Foster Friends is a long-distance friendship between a sponsor and a CSC child.
The sponsors may be individuals, families or church groups --people who desire a relationship with the ministry of CSC through an involvement in the life of a child.
Foster Friends is a “win, win, win” situation. The children receive the security that comes from knowing that people across the world care about them.
The sponsors receive the joy of knowing that they are making a difference in the life of a needy child. And CSC receives financial help for the purchase of food, medicine, and other needed items.
For the modest sum of $25 a month, you can be a Foster Friend. You will be assigned a child and will be given a picture and background information on how your child came to live at CSC.
You will receive regular updates with pictures so you can chart your child’s development. If your child is old enough, he or she will send you an occasional letter.
Since it costs much more than $25 a month to provide for the many needs of a child at CSC, your gift will be combined with others to form an extended family of support for your child.
Yes! You will receive a tax-deductible receipt for every contribution
you make to CSC. CSC is a tax exempt, nonprofit organization under
IRS code 501(c)(3). If you haven't selected a specific child that is listed as available to sposnor, you can make your preference known to CSC. However, since
we have a limited number of children enrolled in the Foster Friends
program, we might not be able to accommodate your request at that
time. In such a case, we will match you with the available child
who comes closest to your stated preference. No. Because we provide residential care to our children, our costs
are much higher than sponsorship programs for children who live
in families. In Foster Friends, we combine your gifts with those
of other friends to form an “extended family” of support
for your child. That way we can provide for the myriad of needs
that our children have: shelter, education, clothing, nutrition,
medical care, counseling and spiritual guidance. You can send cards, letters and pictures to your child at CSC at Box 178,
Cebu City, 6000 Philippines. Be sure your child's name is somewhere on the correspondence.
Some children are in the program for a few months, while others
may be in it for several years. Some of our children are adopted
soon after coming to CSC. It takes longer for others to get placed.
Some are not placed at all. For children who are not adopted,
we provide extended care as long as s(he) is pursuing educational
or vocational programs. We will let you know when your child has
left CSC’s care and give you the opportunity to sponsor
another child who needs your love and support. You will receive an update with a picture two to three times
a year. Our staff in Cebu will write these reports. One of these
updates will be a special Christmas card from your sponsored child.
You will also receive the CSC newsletter three times a year, to keep you posted
on what's happening around CSC.
We ask Foster Friends
to limit Christmas or birthday gifts to cash gifts of $10 each. Any
additional funds sent will be used for holiday celebrations for all of the kids. We ask that you
do not send any non-cash items as gifts. We limit this to be fair to all the
kids. Thank you for understanding as we strive to do what’s best for all
of our children. Contributions can be made annually, quarterly, bi-monthly or monthly. When we receive your gift, we will send your receipt along with a return envelope for your next contribution (unless you give online and ask for e-receipts or an annual summary). Checks should be made payable to CSC. Yes! CSC loves these cost effective
ways of giving. CSC uses a secure third party
site for receiving credit card donations. If you would like
to establish an automatic deposit, please send your information
to the CSC office with your request to sign up for funds transfer. A brochure and sign-up form will be sent to you.
CSC strives to keep our fundraising and administrative costs down. We are successful in that, particularly for a smaller organization. In 2008, we had combined fundraising and administrative costs of only 17.4% In other words, we were able to send more than 82% of all money raised to Cebu for direct care of the children. CSC is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, a watchdog organization for Christian nonprofits, and adheres to their guidelines for financial management, board administration and fundraising. We are also members of the Charities Review Council and have a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator (their highest rating). CSC has an audit done each year by an outside accounting firm, and copies are available in the "Downloadable Resources" section.
To join our Foster Friends program, please complete the form below:
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