Child Sponsorship FAQs

Child Sponsorship is $42 per month, which works out to be just over $10 per week.

Child Sponsorship provides you with a special opportunity to have a unique one-to-one connection with a child and their family in one of the countries where Plan International works. As part of your sponsorship, you can exchange letters and photos, and build a meaningful connection. Each year, you’ll receive updates about your sponsored child and the progress in their community so you can see how you’re helping change lives. Child Sponsorship programming allows us to combine sponsor contributions to establish a trusted partnerships with communities and create lasting change. This helps secure further grant funding from institutional and government donors to grow community-based development projects, like building schools or water taps, which support sponsored children and their communities for years to come.

No. When you sponsor a child, your contributions support that child and the whole community! Your donations collectively support a wide range of projects in your sponsored child's community that are chosen in collaboration with community members. With more than 80 years of experience, we know that the best way to help every child unleash their potential is by them, their families and full communities to create change together, so they can carry on the positive progress for many years to come. 

For more than 80 years, Plan International has built a reputation as one of the world's most effective and responsible development agencies. Your gifts will go far: In 2022, 82% of every dollar raised by Plan International Canada went to programs supporting children and families in some of the most remote communities around the world. That means that 82 cents of every dollar directly fund programs that work to improve children’s communities and lives. We maintain efficiency year after year to ensure we can help as many children in need as possible. Trust and transparency are important to us, and we invite you to look through our annual report and financial statements.

Tax receipts for all recurring gifts with a cumulative annual total of more than $25 will be issued in February of the following year. Sending tax receipts once annually helps reduce administrative costs to ensure more of your contributions reach children in need. Only official receipts issued by Plan International Canada, either by mail or digitally, which include our business number, are valid for Canadian income tax purposes. If you make one-time donations of $25 or more, you will receive an instant tax receipt documenting this individual gift.

If you are a group member sponsoring a child, project or program, official receipts are available for individuals in the group. If you need a tax receipt before February, please contact our Donor Care team by via Live Chat, by emailing info@plancanada.ca. or by calling 1-800-387-1418.

All Plan International Canada supporters with an email address on record will receive their tax receipts electronically to help save paper and keep costs low, maximizing funds for Plan International Canada initiatives. If you want to change your preferences, please contact us via Live Chat, by emailing info@plancanada.ca or calling 1-800-387-1418. If you have more questions about tax receipts, please visit the income-tax receipts page.

It’s natural to want to send something extra to your sponsored child, and we’ll provide opportunities to connect throughout the year. We ask that you limit your gifts to educational items that can fit into a 22cm x 30cm (9” x 12”) envelope. Additionally, to help keep our mailing costs low, your package should not weigh more than 150 grams (5 ounces) or less and be no thicker than 5 cm (2”). A deck of cards is an example of an item that weighs around 150 grams. Please do not send money. If your package is larger or heavier than what is allowed, we can’t deliver it to your sponsored child.

Gift ideas include:

If you want to make additional contributions to our work, we have a wide variety of child-centred projects and initiatives you can support. For more information, check out how you can get involved. 

You can change your information online, by using the Live Chat feature or by calling Donor Care at 1-800-387-1418. For anything related to payments, please contact the Donor Care team.

Please call us at 1-800-387-1418 to update your financial information, including your credit card information. One of our Donor Care representatives will be happy to help you.

How long you sponsor a child is up to you. Many sponsors find it enriching to build a bond with their sponsored child and have been with us for many years, which allows us to make longer-term commitments to our partner communities. If you want to end your sponsorship for any reason, please call our Donor Care team at 1-800-387-1418 so we can introduce your sponsored child to a new sponsor.

At 18, all sponsored children officially “graduate” from the program, although they continue to benefit from our involvement in their community and can participate in other projects. If a sponsored child’s family moves out of the area where Plan International works, or if the community decides that it has become self-sufficient and no longer needs our assistance, the sponsorship will end. When that happens, you’ll be notified and receive a profile and a photograph of a new sponsor child.

Our Donor Care team is happy to answer any questions you have. Please feel free to contact us using the Live Chat feature, by emailing us at info@plancanada.ca or calling us at 1-800-387-1418.