Child Sponsorship – A New Chapter

February 5, 2026

Dear Karis staff,

For 19 years, Karis Global Partnerships has served thousands of people around the world through child sponsorship, funding, and partnering with local church leaders to provide support for people with disabilities and their whole community. We are deeply grateful for the incredible impact donors have in the lives of so many children and families. On Monday, February 2, we shared an important announcement with our child sponsors about the next chapter of the child sponsorship program. We want to ensure that we share with you, as staff, this update as well.

We’ve invited donors to join us in a new approach that will maximize the reach of their gifts and faithful support. And we’re doing this by taking the next year to transition from one-to-one child sponsorship to monthly donations for disability-focused community development initiatives.

Our child sponsorship program, while it has been deeply meaningful to our supporters, has become increasingly difficult over time for our in-country partners. It has unintentionally created disparities within certain communities, from one child to the next, and limited flexibility for in-country leaders to respond to urgent community needs. We have confidence and work closely with our in-country partners as they use donated funds to have the greatest impact on families and children with disabilities — and we want to empower them best we can. This dynamic, in addition to increasing complexity, rising costs, and challenges in unstable regions, has prompted us to pursue this monthly donor transition. We believe this approach can support people with disabilities around the world more sustainably and effectively.

This was an important decision to make and will open new doors to belonging and accessibility. We also understand that this change may be emotional for our child sponsors, which includes a number of Karis staff. We are pleased to offer a new experience later this month for our monthly donors to connect via video with our in-country leaders to meet and see the impact monthly donations make.

We will be providing our donors with more information in March and sharing broader communications in the new fiscal year. You’re welcome to visit our updated Child Sponsorship webpage for more information. If you or your loved ones have any questions, you’re invited to email sponsorship@karis.org.

And what’s next? We’ve been busy preparing for the launch of a new monthly partnership program. This new model is an exciting next step into Karis’ future in international disability work. Learn more at karis.org/monthly-partnership.

Thank you for your prayers as we begin this new chapter. We’ll continue to keep in touch with updates about our global programming.

Regards,