My Nonprofit Reviews

My wife and I have sponsored a person since January, 2020 through Unbound. We took over the sponsorship of this person when my wife’s mother died. My wife’s mother had initiated the sponsorship of this girl years before. We were pleased with how Unbound functioned, and we enjoyed sending pictures and emails back and forth with our sponsored person.

Then on August 12, 2022 (with no prior notice), we received an email informing us that our sponsored individual was “no longer part of the program.” We were shocked and worried that she had died or had broken agreements, until we read the next sentence saying that Unbound was no longer going to serve our sponsored child’s region. They did provide an explanation for their decision, but they gave us no opportunity to write a final email to the young lady, and it appeared that her sponsorship had simply been terminated (even though our monthly gifts continued). Attached to our email was a letter (and translation) from this young lady, dated August 1, 2022. She wrote a beautiful letter thanking us for all we had done. Clearly, we would have at least wanted to be sure that we could write a farewell back to this young lady.

I contacted Unbound and voiced my concerns. I noted that my wife had actually written an email on August 7 before we knew of the termination, and the Unbound rep could only say that our sponsored young lady would “probably” receive this. Moreover, the Unbound rep said that our sponsored young lady would only “probably” get any final email from us if we chose to write one, and that there would be no way to insure that this happened. Moreover, whereas I did not mention it, the Unbound rep did not discuss returning our latest designated monthly gift, even though it was apparently given after our young lady was terminated.

I believe that this event demonstrates poor practices, based on the understanding that people commit to sponsoring children with the expectation that they will be able to continue this sponsorship until the child/young person completes all education (this is what we were told). Thus, to simply delete this sponsorship, especially with no notice so that we could ensure that our farewell email would reach this young lady, seems analogous to closing a service station—with unfixed cars still in the garage—and leaving in the middle of the night. Given that we were told Unbound was closing entire regions, we assume that other donors had the same upsetting experience that we did.

At the very least, I would assume that any reputable NGO would seek to complete its existing agreements regarding existing sponsored youth while stopping the initiation of new sponsorships, thereby facilitating a smooth and ethical transition from a region. Whereas the Unbound e-mail speaks of a “timeline” for their closing of regions, we were not apprised of anything until after the fact.

I give two stars with this review and not one star because—up until these recent events—I believe that Unbound was providing a good service, enabling us to sponsor someone with whom we developed a warm email relationship. These recent events, however, significantly damage my confidence in Unbound, and we will no longer be supporting this organization.