Purpose
This Key Information sets the terms and conditions for orphan sponsorship and is effective from 26th April 2022.
Summary
This page contains important information for web sponsors with active or on-hold status subscriptions and covers how our missed sponsorship system works, how you can update your card details, settle any arrears, switch payment providers, give a gift to your orphan, request regular updates, view updates and how to cancel your subscription.
Introduction
You agree to sponsor an orphan when you set up an active monthly or annual recurring subscription via our website. We will take care of everything to ensure that your sponsored orphan receives your monthly support. To facilitate this, all we ask is that there is always an active recurring payment subscription in place.
Automatic Re-attempts
If we have been unable to collect your regular recurring sponsorship amount on its due date, we will automatically re-attempt to collect the missed amount during the next 7 days.
How our missed sponsorship system works
When our system is unsuccessful in collecting a payment on its due date, the subscription status automatically changes from Active to On-Hold, which means that it is either on-hold pending payment or pending cancellation. It will remain in on-hold status until (1) any amount that is owing has been settled or a recurring payment arrangement has been set up to collect the arrears over a period of time and (2) until the next regular recurring subscription amount has been successfully collected on its due date. If these two events occur, the status will automatically revert from on-hold to active status.
If the amount owing remains unsettled for up to 1 complete month since the last due date, then the system will irrevocably cancel your regular recurring subscription plan and associated orphan sponsorship. This action cannot be reversed. You will then need to first settle your arrears before our system will allow you to re-join the orphan sponsorship programme and a different orphan would be assigned to you based on longest waiting first.
The reason for this is that when an on-hold status changes to cancelled, no active payment subscription plan nor active orphan sponsorship exists. Therefore, we cannot reverse it and re-assign the original orphan to your profile when you do not have an active regular recurring payment subscription in place. The system will assign an orphan to you based on longest waiting first from our database only at the time when you enter into a new orphan sponsorship.
The reason for capping arrears to two complete months is to prevent sponsors from entering into further arrears as it becomes increasingly challenging for the charity to maintain unfunded sponsorships that are in arrears where neither an active payment method exists, nor an active recurring subscription exists.
If your sponsorship has been cancelled, whether you decide to begin a new sponsorship or not, please visit Sponsorship Contributions to settle your arrears at your earliest opportunity with the understanding that we have already processed your request and have already given (in the case of monthly funded sponsorships), or are continuing to give (in the case of annually funded sponsorships) the funds to your sponsored orphan for which the charity will remain in deficit until it is reimbursed.
How to resolve the issue and how to update your card details
In the first instance, please find out why your card payment did not go through. Did your card expire? Was it due to insufficient funds? Was it due to a security check? Once you have resolved the issue, please follow the guidance below.
If you are with Stripe and you need to update your card details, you can add and remove cards in Donation Methods.
If you are with PayPal and you need to update your card details, you can do this directly in PayPal.
Consider switching payment provider from PayPal to Stripe
If you are with PayPal, you may want to consider switching to Stripe as their fees to the charity are lower and they offer greater flexibility. Click here to switch. In the switch page, identify the relevant subscription, click on View, click on Change Payment Provider, select Stripe and enter your card details and our system will automatically stop your old subscription via PayPal and will start your new subscription via Stripe. Finally, visit Sponsorship Contributions to settle any arrears.
How to review your detailed sponsorship payment history
If you would like to review your detailed sponsorship payment history with a view to identifying any gaps, you will find this in Subscriptions.
How to catch up on missed amounts/settle arrears/set a repayment plan
Once you have updated your card details/payment method or switched from PayPal to Stripe, you can visit Sponsorship Contributions to view and settle your arrears. This page has an additional feature that allows you to choose between two convenient payment options where you can either settle your arrears in one go or over a period of time.
We appreciate that at times sponsors may be very busy and may not get around to opening or reading our arrears notification email straight away. Therefore, we will send you an email reminder once a week for a maximum of 4 weeks from the original payment due date before our system automatically cancels your subscription or reverts the status from On-Hold to Active. We will stop sending reminder emails when you have either settled your arrears or have set up a recurring repayment plan.
Orphan Gifts
Would you like to give a gift to your sponsored orphan(s)? The My Family page facilitates orphan gifts for any occasion and allows you to either:
1. Gift to all your sponsored orphans
2. Gift to one sponsored orphan
3. Gift to multiple sponsored orphans, not to all.
Update Requests
If you scroll to the bottom of the My Family page, you can find and click the Request Update button. You can request an update once every 3 months. The typical time to process and respond to your update request is 3 weeks.
View Orphan Updates
We will email you to let you know when we have an update. To view your update, you will need to login and visit the Updates page.
Cancelling your Subscription
Sponsors are in control of their own sponsorship and a subscription can be cancelled by you logging into My Account, clicking on Subscriptions and then by clicking on Cancel Subscription. When you do this, we will process your cancellation request instantly and will not debit future recurring amounts. Your sponsored orphan will continue to receive their monthly support payment from us until the end of the current subscription period that you have paid up to.
If you have not cancelled your subscription via My Account and we are unable to debit your account for any reason, then the section How our missed sponsorship system works applies.
Contact Us
You should find all the help and information that you need within your My Account dashboard.
If you feel that you need to discuss your arrears, do feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].
For general sponsorship enquiries: [email protected].