Most of us understand the purpose of a financial audit – to give credibility to financial statements for the benefit of the organization’s stakeholders. The purpose of an audit for a community of children and youth who are part of a child sponsorship program may be less evident. An annual audit can provide assurances to your recurring donors and sponsors that your programs are benefitting the specific children and youth they were told they are supporting. In this post, we’ll discuss the timing, details and in-country support needed to successfully complete a community audit for your child sponsorship program.
When is the best time to complete the audit?
Community audits are best done at the beginning of a school year. If at that time you learn there are families and children who have relocated, you can remove them from the sponsorship program. For programs with an educational component, this is also the ideal time to add profiles of the incoming, youngest class of students and additional students who have moved into the area since the last audit.
Are photo updates part of the audit?
We also recommend getting an updated photo of each child in the sponsorship program during the audit to update their profile. This helps to ensure that the sponsor receives at least one photo annually around the same time each year.
How can the in-country team support the audit?
At BrightPoint for Children, we create a series of forms for your in-country team to make it easy for them to audit each community of children. This exercise of stewardship can provide assurances to your sponsors that the child they have committed to support is still part of the program that their donations are being directed accordingly.
What if the child has left the program?
At BrightPoint for Children, we create a series of forms for your in-country team to make it easy for them to audit each community of children. This exercise of stewardship can provide assurances to your sponsors that the child they have committed to support is still part of the program that their donations are being directed accordingly.
If the child is no longer in the program, we let the sponsor know they have left and why; then transfer their support to another child in the same community. Our transition success rate is around 88%, meaning most of your sponsors want to continue to support your programs through child sponsorship and are happy to connect with another child.
So, what benefit is a community audit in child sponsorship? Audits ensure accountability. An organization can quickly lose sponsors and credibility if a child leaves the program and their sponsor was not made aware in a timely manner but, instead, learns the information by other means. Worse, a sponsor travels with the organization in hopes of meeting their sponsored child, only to learn the child is no longer there once they arrive. Regular audits help to ensure situations like this do not happen and builds trust with your sponsors and donors. Though an audit creates some additional work for your team, the benefits are well-worth the effort.
Ready to learn more about managing child sponsorship programs? Download our FREE eBooks and explore our services at www.brightpointforchildren.org
Organizations who want to change the world need the tools to do it. While you serve vulnerable children worldwide, BrightPoint for Children works behind the scenes to manage your sponsorship program. We’ve spent over a decade refining our processes to improve accuracy, reduce errors, attract new sponsors, keep existing ones and serve more children. More than a boxed software product, we become your full service child sponsorship team. You’re making a difference; we’d like to make it easier.
Subscribe today for more child sponsorship insights! If you prefer, listen to this episode on our podcast, “Child Sponsorship Advice and Actionable Insights,” available on ALL podcast platforms.
