FAQs

Where do my sponsorship funds go?

Our sponsorship programs are designed to provide people and families who wish to work with Access Hope Inc. the opportunity to provide a bright future for our children. The common goal of these programs is to provide a mechanism for people to help others overseas in need, especially the young and disadvantaged, so that lives are changed for good. The different sponsorship programs provide engagement with our children, our caregivers and the general operation of the children’s home.

Ultimately all of these funds go toward serving our mission – feeding, housing, educating and caring for our children, and ensuring that they are cared for by a long-term, stable group of qualified and experienced caregivers. Meeting these purposes requires funding not just for day-to-day operating costs, but also in acquiring land, building accommodation and related facilities, administering all of Access Hope Inc.’s and the children’s home’s activities, and in building reserves to ensure Access Hope Inc.’s existence and financial stability into the future. Your sponsorship funds are pooled to meet all of the costs associated with these activities.

If I am sponsoring an individual child, why are my funds pooled?

​We believe that the vision and mission of Access Hope Inc. is best achieved and lived out in relationship. Our children are either double orphans (no parents) or abandoned (parents’ whereabouts unknown). Our child sponsorship program is designed to give your sponsored child the understanding that they are supported by an individual or family that cares about them and their opportunity and hope for a safe and better future. This also gives you and your sponsored child the opportunity to build a relationship through regular communication. You may wish to join one of our trips to the children’s home for a personal visit.

As the children’s individual needs and living expenses may be different from other children, or may change over time, ensuring that the needs of all our children are adequately met is best achieved and administered out of a general pool of funds.

Likewise, while individual children may require the payment of expenses specific to them, the majority of the costs of housing, feeding, supervision and care are communal in nature and cannot readily, or efficiently, be allocated to specific children.

Our child sponsorship program provides for our caring sponsors to feel and establish a personal relationship with an individual child. Our caregiver’s sponsorship program is directed at providing sponsors an opportunity to express their support toward our children’s home caregivers. Our partnership program is directed at providing our partnership sponsors with the knowledge that they are contributing to the overall operation of the children’s home.

Are there any administration expenses

Unfortunately, a charity like Access Hope Inc. cannot be administered without the need to incur administration costs. While all of our Australian Board members and the numerous volunteers who assist us with fundraising and marketing events donate their time to Access Hope Inc. on a voluntary basis, we still incur costs in running the organization.

With our CEO, Linda Gouldsmith, having overseen the building and operation of Access Hope Inc. and our children’s home since 2010 on a volunteer basis, with effect from 1 July 2021 the Board of Access Hope Inc. has determined that the growth of our mission and the time commitment required to oversee all of our operations has necessitated that we move toward paying Linda for her services. While this will not fully compensate Linda for her continuing time and effort in operating Access Hope Inc., it is a significant action in recognizing her commitment to this mission. While this change also increases the administrative costs in operating the charity, the Board is confident that this increased cost will be off-set through future growth.

In the 2020/21 financial year, Access Hope Inc.’s administration costs accounted for approximately 15% of total sponsorship, donation and fundraising income.