Philippine Children's Foundation F.A.Q

What is the Philippine Children's Foundation?

The Philippine Children's Foundation is a not for profit (501(c)(3)) organization with a mission. Our mission is to help bring relief to the poverty stricken children in the Philippines. Assisting children break free from a lifestyle of poverty, suffering, and emotional despair. We provide for their physical needs with food and clothing, meet their emotional and spiritual needs with hope and the love of Jesus Christ.

How did the Philippine Children's Foundation start?

The Philippine Children's Foundation was birth from the compassion of one man. Mr. Sammut spent nine (9) months living in the Philippines and was broken hearted by what he witnessed on a daily basis while living there.

He wanted to help the poor children he encountered, so he funded a mission outreach program that provided food for 100 to 150 children a week. The feeding program is a collaboration between Mr. Sammut and Philippine missionaries. The missionaries enhance the feeding program by spreading the Gospel message of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Many children are being feed physically, spiritually, and emotionally from this collaboration of compassion. The children and their parents are hearing the gospel and many have made Jesus their Lord and Saviour.

Poverty in the Philippines is overwhelming, so it was the burden of Mr. Sammut to gather a team of trusted individuals with diverse backgrounds in order to form the organization in order to continue to help Philippine children break free from poverty. It is our vision to expand our network into all areas of the Philippines.

The Philippine Children's Foundation was formed and incorporated in the State of Michigan on 1/06/05 by its founder Jeffrey F. Sammut. The foundation has received tax exempt status from the IRS- 501(c)(3). The organization is US based and conducts its mission in the Philippines.

Your compassion is greatly needed and appreciated. Your contributions make a difference in breaking the cycle of poverty. Please Give

Was any research done to determine the need for the Philippine Children's Foundation?

Former socioeconomic planning secretary and University of the Philippines (UP) economist Felipe Medalla was quoted in Business World newspaper saying the government's failure to prioritize expenditures, given the little money it has, adds to the "improbability of resolving the poverty problem".

Medalla said "Poverty will remain a serious problem in the Philippines for quite some time,"  "To begin with, it doesn't seem the government will be able to achieve its growth targets and it doesn't seem that it will be able to resolve its fiscal deficit."

In 2003 government debt totaled 78 percent of gross domestic product while public sector debt stood at 138 percent of GDP.According to the World Bank some 51 percent of the country's 84 million people live on less than two dollars a day. In a report on population and poverty published by the UP School of Economics last December it said that while countries like Thailand and Indonesia have managed to bring their population growth down over the last 30 years, the Philippines has not. It has been estimated that with the current rate of population growth of 2.3 percent the Philippine population could double within the next 30 years.

Former budget secretary and UP economist Benjamin Diokno agreed the fiscal problems, coupled with the lack of a national population policy, will make it difficult for the government to cut poverty by half.
There are 42 million people in the Philippines who live on less than two (2) dollars a day. Half the population of Philippines consists of children. The facts show the by the year Poverty in the Philippines will remain a problem for years and government proposals to have it reduced by 2010 remains "unfeasible", according to economists.

Poverty will remain a serious problem in the Philippines for quite some time.

What makes the Philippine Children’s Foundation different and standout among other children charities?

• Unlike most charities that try to focus on saving the world, we will concentrate our focus and efforts on the desperate needs in the Philippines.

• Our focus is community based and our assistance program is long term development.

• We evaluate and address the heart of the problems in order to help Philippine children break free from the cycle of poverty.

• We institute livelihood programs that can help parents become self-sufficient.

• We believe in community based verses the traditional “sponsor one child program”. We don't agree with the sponsor a child concept. We find that one by one sponsorship is not safe or practical because it can cause emotional problems (envy, depression, and anger) for the other children who live in very close proximity to a privileged sponsored child. Instead we believe in community based relief outreach program. We will work with groups of children where they congregate.

• We believe in being good stewards and being Biblically accountable for all our actions.

• We are volunteer based and believe that the money our donors give should be used wisely and efficiently as possible.

• All funds given are accounted for with receipts and the outreach work is documented as proof that is reaching the intended targets.

•  We work hand in hand with missionaries, the local church, and volunteers to accomplish all phases of our program. In a joint venture under contract we provide the funds and resources for children’s humanitarian needs and the missionaries voluntarily accomplish our work and enhance our mission with compassion and care, showing and teaching children the love of Jesus and preaching the good news of Salvation through Jesus Christ

• Because of our collaboration, children are accepting Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and attending Bible based churches. They are developing a new identity, and breaking away from the emotional pains and breaking the poverty cycle.

Why do you believe community based assistance is better than the traditional sponsor a child programs?

Our organization simply does not believe in one by one sponsor a child concept. We don’t believe it’s fair to limit our assistance programs to one child sponsorships. Children and their parents often live in slums where there are families of three (3) or more children and these families are often dwelling together in close groups on government owed land (slums) or private land. In the Philippines these people are known as squatters.

We would rather help groups of children with a community based assistance programs. By assigning a director to oversee and help conduct our assistance outreach programs with the local churches, and address the needs of these different groups of children. One on one child sponsorship would only be practical if all children in the groups could receive sponsorship simultaneously.

The sponsor a child concept focuses on finding a child and a sponsor before a child receives help. This program can create a large costly overhead of organizational management requirements and responsibilities. We believe that our focus should concentrate on helping children not costly organization management. The funds our donors give should be maximized for the cause it was given to. Therefore we believe your donations should be used wisely, not to give jobs to our organization in order to manage costly database of children.

We believe we can do more good by reaching out with community based assistance and we feel it’s better to try to help as many children as possible with out giving favoritism to any one child.

How does the Philippine Children's Foundation decide of which Children are helped?

Specifically we help children in areas where our directors have active collaborations with missionaries and churches that can actively conduct the outreach assistance programs.

We target children whose parents are very poor and who struggle to find support for themselves; most times they are living in rural areas or slums.  The mothers and fathers have a hard time getting jobs and are often uneducated. The parents are struggling to feed their children and send them to school. They struggle to pay for school transportation, school supplies, and school lunch. If their child is attending a school it is often common for theses children to leave school because they don’t have any money for lunch or even a snack. Some of children are not attending school because the parents never obtained a required birth certificate for the child because they thought it would not be needed or because they waited till the child was older and a fee was imposed which they could not afford to pay. Often children beg on the streets as an occupation as an alternative to going to school.

The needs are very overwhelming, we want to help every child whose parents are truly poor and underprivileged, but a lot depends on our donors for a source of funding. As more funding becomes available we will seek out other missionaries, churches, or affiliates and schools in the Philippines in order to expand our network. If a child has a special out of the ordinary need, and that need is inline with our mission statement, then the need will be evaluated and decided upon by our board of directors.

Philippine Children's foundation or its affiliates does not exclude any Philippine child from receiving help based on different religions or there own beliefs.

What type of gifts do you accept?

The most common type of gift is cash. A gift of cash provides us the immediate ability to help the children and is the simplest contribution to document for tax purposes. It is not economical for us to ship clothing or any other goods to the Philippines because of the high expenses with shipping and customs taxes. Many of the goods we provide to children can be obtained much cheaper in the Philippines.

However, it is far from the only type of gift that can benefit our organization. Other forms of gifts include: appreciated property (including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and certain real estate), bequests and other forms of planned giving tools. Please be advised that it is our policy to sell appreciated property as soon as possible after the gift is received. Additionally, gifts of in-kind or program/medical supplies are extremely valuable.

If you have some thing you would like to donate for a tax deduction and you believe it benefits are organizational needs, or you believe it could easily be sold by us to further our cause then please contact our management for a case assessment. We will only accept goods for children if you will ship them to the Philippines (they must clear customs and be duty free).

For tax purposes, a gift is considered made on the date it is received, hand delivered or ownership transferred. For appreciated property and in-kind gifts, we will recognize the gift based upon it fair market or retail value.

Can I make a pledge payable over several years?

For obvious reasons, the earlier a gift can be received, the better able we are to meet the construction schedule. However, we also hope that our relationship with contributors will be a long-term partnership. Also, we recognize that many people are able to make an even greater impact if they are able to spread their contributions. As a result, it is our policy that gifts may be pledged over multiple years, not to exceed five years.

Is there any control to make sure every one is accountable with the money donors give?

Yes, we have specific policy requirements with all aspects of our management.

• We oversee all operations in the Philippines to ensure that children programs are being conducted efficiently.

• All funds given are accounted for with receipts and the outreach work is documented as proof that is reaching the intended targets.

• We keep close contact and work directly with the missionaries, churches and expect required documents in the form of receipts, pictures, and progress reports.

• We believe in being good stewards and being Biblically accountable for all our actions.

• We are not doing this work for our own gain. We are seeking to raise funds because we want to help hurting poor children in the Philippines.

• We take accountability very seriously. Funds are only disbursed to accountable Philippine nonprofit organizations that are under contract with us to provide for the needs of the poor.

How much of my donation goes to the Children?

Because of our collaboration with Missionaries, Churches, and Volunteers our programs in the Philippines can be run without the high cost of a paid staff. Our current average is 90 percent of each dollar is being used exclusively to help children.
 
Like all charities we do have some expense which can’t be avoided, (postage, fundraising cost, basic organization fees). We strive to run our organization with out cost in order to give as much as possible.

We are a Christian based organization that believes in Biblical financial stewardship, therefore we budget our expenses and work with a volunteer base in order to maintain that 80 to 90 percent of each dollar you give goes to the Philippine Children.

Our reputation is important to us therefore we will strive to exceed other charities and always be transparent and reputable to the public. Charities that give 80 percent of each dollar are rated 5 stars by guidestar (5 stars = highest rating).

Is my donation tax deductible?

 Yes , our organizational was given a 501(C)(3) status by the IRS. This means we are tax exempt organization and that you can claim 100 percent of your donation given to us on your federal taxes.

Is it safe to use a credit card on your website?

Yes, we use a company (click and pledge.com) that uses the highest standards to process credit cards online to safeguard your transaction from identity theft.

This web site takes every precaution to protect our users' information. When our users submit their sensitive information via the web site, your information is protected both online and offline.

When you enter this sensitive information (such as credit card number), that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry - SSL. While on a secure page, such as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to unlocked, or open, when you are just 'surfing'.

Click and Pledge policy is to do everything in their power to protect user-information off-line. All of our users' information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. Our employees must use password-protected screen-savers when they leave their desk. When they return, they must reenter their password to regain access to your information. Furthermore, ALL employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Every quarter, as well as any time new policies are added, our employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on privacy, and what they can do to ensure our customers' information is protected. Finally, the servers that we store personally identifiable information on are kept in a secure environment, behind a locked cage.

You can feel safe knowing click and pledge has high standards to safeguard your financial data. You may also download our contribution form and fax/mail your donation if you wish.

Can I send a check to your organization?

Yes , you can download our contribution form and ether mail or fax it back to us.
pdf or word add link to the page

How will you handle my personal financial information?

We promise to safe guard our donor’s identity and financial sensitive data.

• Philippine Children's Foundation.org and ClickandPledge.com promise that they will be the sole owners of the information collected on their web sites. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to other parties.
• For your protection and ours we only allow trusted staff limited access to this sensitive information.
• Philippine Children's Foundation/ClickandPledge.com does not use any information provided except for contacting the donor in case of issues and disputes regarding the payments.

Can I donate a gift for a specific cause?

Yes, you may give a special designated contribution to go to a specific purpose but please contact us <link first in order to find that we are able to comply with your request. Please contact our management for restrictions set by contributors.

What do the children get from your services?

We will supply Children with the basic necessities they need to improve their living conditions (give humanitarian goods, food, clothing, and address any physical problems).

90 percent of our work will consist of addressing physical needs.

Our missionaries will try to inquire with parents to see if children are attending school. We try to address issues and needs with their parents and analyze each situation on a case to case basis to see if their child is attending school. If their child is not attending school and they are not able to provide for their child we may provide the following: school tuition, school clothing, lunch, and a birth certificate so they can properly register for school. This is only made possible by people who have made commitments to give and have funded our organization.

Payments for goods are never given to individuals, education costs are given directly to the school which would also cover their meals while attending.

Another area of assistance may include counseling of parents and implementing livelihood programs to promote less dependency.

Other areas include dealing with emotional and spiritual needs.  We try to meet those needs by giving children and their parents love and hope and encouragement. This is possible because we are working hand in hand with missionaries, the local church, and their members to accomplish all phases of our outreach programs.
In a joint venture we supply missionaries’ humanitarian supplies to do our work and they enhance our mission by loving the children and preaching the good news of Salvation through Jesus Christ.  Children are accepting Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and attending Bible based churches because of our collaboration. The children are developing new identities, breaking away from the emotional pains, and breaking the poverty cycle mentality.

Philippine Children's foundation or its affiliates does not exclude any Philippine child from receiving help based on different religions or their own beliefs.

Is there any control to make sure the children you help need it?

All children that receive help are from poor families.

When children have special needs that require extra funding we will interview there parents and/or relatives to make sure they can’t address the problems on their own. 
Special needs may be serious medical problems, dental, or any serious issue that needs attention. When we encounter theses situations we f will try to work them out first with local community services or seek assistance from volunteer doctors and dentists.
All other major problems that need funding will go before our Board of Directors for funding consideration.

Do you give money directly to children or their parents?

No , money is only given in grant form to the organizations we have collaborations with to provide goods for children. However some of these organizations we support may provide small grants to mothers in order to promote “livelihood programs”
Livelihood program- A program that teaches and empowers someone to start and run a small business in order to help supplement income.

Payments will always be given directly to these organizations in order to keep documentation of all transactions for accountability purposes.

Can I make contact with the children I am helping?

It is difficult because our organization simply does not believe in singling out one child like the traditional sponsor a child charity.

We don't believe it's fair to limit our assistance programs to one child sponsorships. Children and their parents often live in slums where there are families of three (3) or more children and these families are often dwelling together in close groups on government owed land (slums) or private land.
In the Philippines these people are known as squatters.
Many children and their parents live in places where no physical address exists.

This one by one sponsorship would also create a large overhead of management responsibilities for correspondence and databases and that would take away from money that should go to assisting the children.

We would rather help these children with a community based assistance programs, and assign a director to these areas where squatters congregate addressing the needs in theses groups of children as a whole. One on one child sponsorship would only be practical if all children in the groups could receive sponsorship simultaneously. Our focus must remain on the outreach work we conduct and it's very difficult to single out one specific child.

However it may be possible to correspond with our missionaries, and they may be able to assist you.  Or you may visit the children we work with and even assist in an outreach program with one of our Philippine directors.
Please contact us if you would like to visit one of our outreach programs.

Do you only help Children?

Our focus is children but in order to help children we find it's helpful and sometimes just as necessary to help the parents of these children.

The parents are usually uneducated and hard pressed to find decent work. We try to counsel and work with parents to ensure parenting skills and literacy. We are always on the lookout for government programs in the Philippines that could help with these needs.

Our goal is to Promote and implement money generating programs for the parents (livelihood programs) in order to promote self sufficiency for the parents so they can provide for their children.

Do the children have to be Christians to be helped on a continual basis?

Jesus didn't discriminate, neither will we.

We help battle hunger and malnutrition regardless of individuals' religious beliefs.

We do endorse Bible based Christian beliefs and teach children the meaning behind the Bible but our organization does not discriminate when it comes to giving to humanitarian needs.

What are your Christian beliefs?

• We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.
• We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return to power and glory.
• We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful people, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
• We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
• We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
• We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Contact information

Email us click here

Ph (313) 561-1405 fax (734) 425 0671

Mailing address:

Philippine Children’s Foundation
P.O. Box 654
Taylor, Mi. 48180