My Nonprofit Reviews

I have mixed feelings about the organisation. The kids seem genuinely in need, but the organisation itself is not transparent enough and it is hard to get information about the child outside of the generated info on the child's profile (which often contains outdated data - how many teenagers play with dolls or jump rope in their free time?). Some members of CI are genuinely kind and respond to your questions on message board with more details, but the official customer service is mostly disinterested and they do not care about yout questions even if you inquire about extra donations. They are also reluctant to give you more information about your child except from the generic information that you can already see on the website profile.

I would like to help my child more but it is very hard to do this since I do not have any communication with the family nor CI customer service can provide me with any substanstial information. I do not wish to give my money just hoping that it will be used smartly, I want to know what the family needs and how exactly I can help them (not only by sending generic extra gifts).

Letters are nice to get, but they are very slow so it is hard to keep interest in writing since you already know that the child will not receive your messge for at least a month or even two.
In 21st century this is simply inefficient and I lost the will to write, because even if I ask my child something I will not get an answer for months and CI Customer Service offers generic replies. Therefore I resort now only to sending monthly donation.

We all know that everyone has smartphones and internet these days so I do not understand why communication through social media is forbidden - if someone is annoying or seems dangerous you can always report it back to CI and block the person completely. Letter system is terribly inefficient and only gives false hopes of creating a bond between sponsor and a child which is completely unrealistic to expect considering inability to communicate more transparently and more often.
Too bad because the idea is very nice. I really wish I could help my child more, but I simply cannot take food from my mouth in order to give extra funds in such untransparent manner.