In 1938, Christian Childrens Fund was formed in Richmond, Virginia. A minister of the Presbyterian faith, J. Calvitt Clarke, was suddenly struck by the conviction that his calling included something that involved helping children in dire need of aid. As a devout Christian, children fund ideas began to enter his thinking when he learned about the injustices children were experiencing in China, especially after the latest invasion of the Japanese army. The suffering these children underwent is indeed legendary; so many of them were ripped away from their families and were considered displaced orphans. The Christian Children’s Fund was the new vehicle which Mr. Clarke used to get money he raised in the United States to these needy children.

For a Christian, children fund-raising literature and pleas were something that came with the territory, but for many who may not have been so inclined in the beginning, this idea of a Christian children fund was something novel indeed. Yet Mr. Clarke was far from being done. Raising funds was only the beginning of his work. He knew instinctively that sooner or later pockets would be empty and donations would dry up. Most importantly, he understood that the children needed consistent help rather than just the sporadic digging through the pockets that would happen after a convicting sermon, or a rousing speech in favor of his charity.

To this end, Mr. Clarke resolved to find a new form of giving that would put the Christian children fund on the map as the first kind of organization who tried this new mode of giving: he introduced the idea of annual sponsorship. Suddenly even small donors, who might have felt incapable of handing over big donations, were able to contribute on a regular basis. In addition to the foregoing, because these individual donors were paired up with a real life child, they felt a sense of responsibility and also accountability that was not there when the giving was done on a mostly faceless basis.

At the end of World War II, the expansion of the Christian children fund was unstoppable. Mr. Clarke had proven himself and his concept of sponsorship, and suddenly needy countries from around the world were appealing to him and his charity to also help their needy children. During the 1960s, it became apparent to the leaders of the fund that in some instances they were actually causing more harm than good, especially when it became obvious that desperate parents had begun to regularly abandon their children in front of orphanages set up by the fund, so as to give their children a chance at a full stomach and healthy upbringing, which they themselves could not provide.

Once again the fund changed course, and included a new program that further helped children: The Family Helper project. With this project firmly in place, parents no longer needed to abandon their children to help them, but the help was now extended to intact families as well. So next time when you receive a solicitation from the fund, do not throw it away; instead, answer their plea for help with a donation of your own!