Sponsorship - A Perpetual Fund

We have a unique perspective on sponsorship of people. When we say sponsorship, we do not mean just giving money to a person as a grant, but we believe it should be a loan. We adhere to the idea that free things are treated lightly, earned things are treated with respect.

We believe that sponsorship should be in the form of a 'perpetual fund.' When an individual is sponsored the funds are lent to the individual, with the expectation of payback over time. Some of the sponsorships will be for riskier ventures which may not be paid back, and the idea is not to burden someone in a failed venture with payback expectations that can never be fulfilled, but to be paid back if a certain set of conditions are met.

For example, a nursing sponsorship is designed to be a loan to the student nurse. If the nurse graduates, there is the expectation that the loan will be paid out of future earnings so that the funds donated are paid back to the sponsorship program and are to made available in perpetuity for the next generations of nurses.

There will be some who do not make it through the program, for whatever reason. In that case, there will be a reduced expectation of payback. An untrained worker will have little opportunity to pay the loan back. The intent is not to make that person a debtor for life, and in that sense, the sponsorship may be treated like a grant, with a reduced expectation of payback.

In the case of a farmer, a loan made is expected to be paid back from the proceeds of the sale of a crop. If the crop is a total failure for reasons beyond the farmer's control, the loan payback will be postponed until there are the economic means to pay it back. The idea is not to make a farmer a debtor forever if there is a crop failure. The idea is that loaned money is to be paid back from profits. The intial loan is 'seed' money to encourage the farmer to take a little risk in the hope of a return for taking that risk.'Insurance' for failure is built into to the cost of the loans. The repaid money is used to help another farmer.

When you choose to sponsor someone, your money is added to the perpetual fund. You may choose to know more about the person you sponsored, and if so, you may elect to receive information about that person, and you may elect to receive a quarterly report about that person's sponsored activities until the sponsorship is paid back or declared non-payable. Loans paid back will be returned to the perpertual fund, and be lent again to another person. If you choose to, you can follow those funds as they help another.