Yes, I know how ad revenue works on the internet - I’m an expert at SEO (search engine optimiztion). That’s exactly why I was excited about Search Kindly.

I am “known” to a lot of people online, and if I promoted Search Kindly and then people went there to make it their default search engine, and the ads were questionable, it would reflect on me. So, I do have to be careful about what I endorse.

That’s just me

And I also believe there are potential sponsors, people that aren’t yet aware or involved with Compassion, that have deeply empathetic hearts for children in poverty who would love to get involved if someone just told or showed them how easy it can be, even if they don’t have $32 a month to sponsor a child.

I think that basically if you reach out to people who care about poor children, then you’re getting the right people involved regardless of their politics.

Do you believe that there may be an “unreached sponsor-group” that could be more involved in Compassion’s mission?

Ok, awesome, I completely understand what you’re trying to say now! I appreciate the clarification.

While I do think employees’ political ideologies contribute to the organizational culture of Compassion and therefore affects its work, I think that’s inevitable and not necessarily a bad thing. And while for me, issues of poverty liberalized me a few years ago, I have several friends that care for the same issues that identify as conservative.

I don’t know if you know the political make-up of Compassion or how you would find out, but I think it could actually be useful in terms of understanding what kind of evangelicals you are effectively reaching. I hope Compassion does know/remember that evangelical politics are much broader than the media stereotype and is able to get people of all stripes involved in its mission.

When I called Compassion a conservative Christian organization I applied that label based on the fact that many of my co-workers identify themselves as conservatives; thus, I extended that association to Compassion. That’s the relative part. It’s based on my perspective and experience.

I do not think that all Compassion supporters identify as conservative. I know all Compassion employees don’t identify as conservative.

Compassion does not have a political agenda. It’s mission is 100 percent children - releasing children from poverty … and doing it in Jesus’ name. The two parts are inseparable.

The ideology that roots the organization is love. Love for Jesus. Love for children. Love for the Body of Christ. Love for each other.

I don’t know that this really answered my question. I guess what I’m really asking is, do you think almost all Compassion supporters identify as conservative? Or do you mean to say there is an unspoken conservative bent to Compassion as an organization?

There are other non-profits that I would say clearly have a politically conservative bent (e.g. Focus on the Family) and others that are “non-partisan” but still are essentially liberal organizations (e.g. NOW). Others seem less politically defined but from their approach to solving problems in society, you can guess those in charge tend to lean in a certain direction– and even if they don’t say it, they’re self-aware about their conservative/liberal leanings.

As a political science major in college, I’m really curious to know how you would identify Compassion– when you speak of it as conservative, is that the supporters? Or the ideology that roots the org?

Wow… you work fast. I think the Gravatars look great floated right… so that if someone doesn’t have one there’s no harm done.

Great work!

Ok, by the context of your remarks it sounds like you have the WP-Gravatar plugin in use. If you go into the settings for it you should be able to change the styling (it’s the field that has a float:left). I would recommend changing the float left to float right and margin-right to margin-left. That would appear much less intrusive in the comments. Ooohh… but would that affect posts, too?

We wouldn’t have to be having this conversation if the identicons, monstercons, etc were built directly into Wordpress like they are in the hosted blogs at Wordpress.com.

I’ll look into this further.

Thanks for the prodding.

If anyone wants to create a gravatar, it takes a few seconds and can be done at gravatar.com

I’d be tickled to do the leg work for you. Please email me and I’ll send you short, straightforward instructions.