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I feel Compassion used Jhan Marco's face peeking out the envelope to trick me into opening a plea to sponsor an adorable, chubby cheeked, four year old from Bangladesh. I feel Compassion putting his picture right next to Jhan's and the caption, "What does Jhan Marco have that Akhlas Ahmed doesn't?" is dirty pool. "YOU FOR A SPONSOR!" it shouted! Then it went on to say he was just waiting for my approval so he could be sponsored by me - just like Jhan.
I would LOVE to sponsor all kids. But my reality is I'm at my maximum and I am too old to sponsor a four year old. I am supposed to have my account flagged to only choose my own children.
I have been removed from mailing list for Compassion Sundays and solicitations, but that seems to only last for about a year and then they start again.
I am feeling pressured and terribly disappointed.
Sincerely, Kris Rasmussen
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- tricked
Posted 2 years ago
Shannon Massey, Employee
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I am so sorry you are feeling disappointed by this new campaign we sent. We completely understand you feeling this way, as we have actually had this feedback from other supporters as well. We want to apologize from all of our hearts if this felt offensive or inappropriate in any way! Our true mission is to find loving, encouraging sponsors for each child. We are sending all of the feedback we receive to our marketing team so that they know the effect these appeals have on our supporters and thus they can use this feedback going forward. In addition, I have re-removed you from the mailing list for all of our appeals to ensure this does not happen again. Thank you so much for taking the time to provide us this feedback so that we can continue to create positive appeals and treat our supporters with the respect they deserve!
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Shannon Massey, Employee
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We appreciate your feedback. We do take each and every bit of feedback to heart and hope that we can use it to improve our ministry in the future.
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I didn't receive the campaign because I'm opted out to other mailings (I assume that's why, it's very easy to opt out for anyone that doesn't want them!) Mainly because I figure it saves trees and a stamp for Compassion and if I did want to sponsor again I'd go to their website and do it.
If I'd seen this advertisement I admit I'd have been disappointed that it wasn't something about my kid because of the picture, but then I'd have just recycled it and moved on. As for feeling listened to, I do feel Compassion listens, but they just can't always change things because a handful of people don't like it.
In the long run, they see exactly what methods get the most sponsors and help the most kids and need to do that, and sometimes it'll be trial and error but I can't imagine they would keep budgeting for something that they discovered did NOT work and cost them more in advertising than what they brought in, so if something like this pops up rather than feel pressure, if you can't afford it, just try to think "Yay! Compassion's doing something that will help this kid get a sponsor so I don't have to worry about him/her as now he'll find one quickly."
I used to sponsor for another large organization and they used the exact same tactics, as well as a couple of smaller ones. It's quite common so my thoughts are that they do it because it works and gets new sponsors. If that's the case, I can't fault them because the more sponsors they have the more they can do to help the kids, and in the long run that's what's important!
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That is why five years ago I chose to partner with Compassion over the other large organization.
I do not believe Jesus would approve of "whatever works" tactics. It felt wrong.
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Agreed, but I don't think this tactic is dishonest. If the advertising had been lying or saying that unless you sponsor the child they wouldn't get the benefits of the program, or using some random photo of a kid that wasn't even a real child living in poverty, I would agree, but I don't think that's the case. Saying this kid is in poverty and doesn't have a sponsor is truthful.
I will rephrase since I was misunderstood...
I don't think "whatever works" is the answer.
I think whatever honest approach works best to help others is the answer.
Adam also agree with you too. I would suggest if people aren't giving joyfully they don't do it. Myself, I love to sponsor and sponsor as many as I can afford (which isn't many at all, so I correspond with much more). Which is why if I got this, I would recycle it without hesitation. No one is being forced to respond. But Compassion is in this to help kids as long as they are doing it without lying about the kids, then I'd like to see them help as many as they can.
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And I just can't see something like this as deceitful. The information on it was accurate. Compassion probably has someone on the marketing team that said "Look, the other organizations are doing this and it brings in thousands of new sponsors! Think of all the kids we could help that way. Let's give it a try" type situation, so they give it a try. I don't think it was done to intentionally upset sponsors or make them feel pressured to give when they can't, I think it was sent with the intention of finding new sponsors ONLY. Ones that CAN afford it. You sent out a thousand of them and expect to get 50 people that say "Hey yes, we can do that and we can sponsor 3-4 more on top of it" but they certainly don't send out 1000 and expect 1000 back.
You say to present people with the opportunities and let God do the work but that's exactly what this is... they are presenting people with the opportunity to sponsor. This IS the presentation. They aren't forcing them too. And people will respond differently to diff types of advertisements but you can't account for how every unique individual will react. It's impossible. I'd suggest that maybe if someone feels super strongly about needing to sponsor because of one particular ad to pray about it. Maybe the pressure is from God rather than the ad. If it's not God will help them let go of the child and forget about it.
And if this is a struggle for someone every time, I would suggest they opt out of receiving them at all.
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I live in Canada and have half my kids on a Canadian account and sadly in Canada the upgrades are still going on. It's actually glitched to the point where the kids cannot hear from us (not all but some. 4 of my kids have not received a single letter from me in 18 months though I write 2-4/month :( :( :( Frustrating for sure, but still for the best in the long run I think and I eagerly await the day it is fixed.
Besides the letter writing upgrades which, despite the glitches in Canada, I LOVE (I've been getting letters within days of them being written) Compassion itself feels the same to me. When I talk to staff on here, it feels the same, when I talk to other sponsors it feels the same, when I write to my kids it feels the same. I don't know about the automated phone thing though, I don't call just email/live chat when I need something so I wouldn't have noticed that difference.
I am sorry you haven't had that same experience though :(
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I did not all the different rules, ( I don't think STAFF knew all the rules about what could/couldn't be sent very far in advance) that I knew about a month or two before but considered that notice too and the year ahead of time I just knew that Big changes were coming, that we may not be able to send puzzles (specifically, maybe more) anymore because of huge updates and they were looking into what we would/wouldn't be able to send, and about 6 months before (in October, it changed in April) I did get my first scanned letter as a preview to what they would look like. That might have been through Compassion Canada but I posted it on the FB group and I remember others posting theirs too
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Also, let me clarify a bit. Hilary, it makes me sad to hear you talking about feeling left out. :( Please know that it is not that you are not a part of some "secret" group, but rather a reflection of the fact that sometimes our partner countries choose to do things slightly differently. Teresa is from Canada and Compassion Canada had decided to notify sponsors much sooner than any other partner country. Two or three months prior to the letter processing updates, Compassion staff were informed updates were coming and we were given a rough timeline. However, we did not have the full picture yet on how it all was going to work. Compassion USA decided to wait until we could fully anticipate questions from sponsors, etc. I did post on OC Facebook prior to when Compassion USA sent out the official announcement, because I was aware that Compassion Canada had already been informing their sponsors of the changes for a few months, and there are quite a few people on OC Facebook who live in Canada. This means that supporters were regrettably given advance notice at varying times depending on where they live and what groups they were a part of. Perhaps one positive outcome of all of these changes (and what clearly went wrong with them) is that we learned quite a bit about communicating with sponsors and the partner countries are now more unified than we ever have been before.
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I have felt changes in Compassion since 2012. I used to take the regular, honest, upfront flyers to sponsor a specific child to my laundromat and leave them with the magazines, or to the Farmer's Market and put them up on the bulletin board. I wanted everyone in my community to know about Compassion.
I need to give you a bit more information about this new campaign. I described the first page above. The second page says:
" Dear Kris,
I recently read a story where a man who had grown up in poverty was describing what it was like. What he said made me shiver.
He said poverty is like a 100-tentacled shadow monster (insert a close up of 4 year old Akhlas chubby cheeked, worried face) that looms over you wherever you go. Day or night, its dark arms wrap around you and cover every inch of you in despair, terror, and hopelessness."
It goes on from there for another page and a half but you get the idea. It just screams scare tactics. I'm not callous enough to recycle it and forget about Akhlas because I know he is a real person! It goes on to say I rescued Jhan from the dark and I wouldn't want to leave Akhlas alone in the dark in paralyzing fear, physical pain and despair, would I? This is meant to keep me awake at night.
I wouldn't share this one, it wouldn't be right playing on someone's emotions like that . To me this is an extreme change, going from something I wanted to share to something I am ashamed of.
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23
Compassion is/was close to my heart and I want them to be aware these changes are not good. My experience is close to Adam's.
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I would probably say a prayer for the kid, but I'd still recycle the paper and I really don't feel "callous" for doing it. And more to the point, I don't believe Compassion's goal here was to make me feel that way either.
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We are all very different and this letter gave me nightmares.
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And yes I agree we are all different, which is why I do not believe Compassion was intentional about it. I believe they simply didn't know how people would react because THEY would not have reacted in that way.
It is a VERY common technique with other organisations, I used to get that kind of thing almost monthly with a couple that I used to sponsor with, so they probably just said "Hey, this is what other places are doing and it's working, let's try it." I really don't believe it was purposely meant to trigger people. That's all.
For me the reaction is to be grateful I don't live like that and pray for those that do, and I guess because I've never experienced anything underhanded from Compassion staff myself after a LOT of dealing with them, I still believe that that was how they thought most people would react with the simple hope that those that COULD afford it, would give. And I still believe that because they are sending it out to soooo many people they CAN'T predict how each individual will react.
I'm not saying it was the best ad, clearly it triggered a lot of people so it probably shouldn't be done again, I'm just saying that Compassion has a real heart for these kids and that I don't believe they sent this out with any other hopes than to get a lot of kids sponsored. I believe that these types of stories are sadly all too true and perhaps those on the staff that see it happening in real life feel and urgency that we don't and are trying to convey that urgency, yes, but I don't think they wanted people who CAN'T afford it to sponsor and I don't think they intended anyone to feel bad or guilty if they couldn't.
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