Written by: Web Team
Back in March we asked you a simple question: Where Do You Sponsor a Child? And boy howdy, did a conversation take off!
Now, we’d like to introduce you to OurCompassion.org — our new Web site to more easily connect you with people who sponsor children in the same country or child development center as your child.
Of course, if you want to connect with other people, you can do that, too. We’ll allow it. 
OurCompassion isn’t just a U.S. project. At this time, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands are participating, but all of our partner countries will eventually be involved.
We’re building OurCompassion to help make your sponsorship experience more vibrant, dynamic and rewarding — to help take it beyond what it has been in the past.
Our development priorities for OurCompassion will revolve around delivering the functionality necessary to bridge the gap between you and your child — relationally, geographically, technologically, etc. We’re not trying to recreate Facebook, but we do want OurCompassion to communicate with the networks you’re in.
It’s going to take time for our vision to be fully realized; we are a nonprofit, after all. But for now we invite you to join OurCompassion and experience what we call “joined together thinking.”
You can also view the OurCompassion video, Joined Together, as well as all of our videos on YouTube.
Our commitment to you is to make OurCompassion what you want it to be. Do not hesitate to share your thoughts with us.
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June 22nd, 2009 at 4:44 am
I am trying to join, but when I click to submit the form, nothing happens! Is the site up and running?
June 22nd, 2009 at 5:15 am
@Lindy – It is up and running.
After you register, you get a verification email with a link in it. Clicking on the link completes your registration.
June 22nd, 2009 at 5:29 am
Thanks, Chris. It finally did send me the verification email, so I’m signed in. Now I can’t get the site to download our sponsorships. I am wondering if that is because our account at Compassion is listed as “Mr. and Mrs.” with my husband’s first name, but not mine. I am really excited about meeting other sponsors from our children’s projects. Can you help?
June 22nd, 2009 at 5:39 am
I love this site! My only complaint is that Canadian sponsors can’t import their sponsored child information because we don’t have an account like US sponsors do. Other than that, I think it’s wonderful!
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:06 am
Thanks for posting this I was trying to figure out how to join.
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:06 am
@Amy Wallace – Good news! The ability to see your children in your OurCompassion profile isn’t associated with the My Account feature. It’s based on your email address.
Children appear automatically in your profile if you create the profile using the email address Compassion has on file for you.
If you haven’t given Compassion an email address or if you create an OurCompassion account with another email address, you have to import your children manually.
There is a question in the FAQ that addresses this.
@Lindy – I suspect the email address you used to create your OurCompassion profile is different than what we have on file as your primary contact email. Try the manual import feature, which is explained in the FAQ.
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:18 am
Chris, the email I address I am using is the one in Compassion’s file as our primary contact email. I just tried again, and it won’t download our sponsored children’s info. I am wondering if it is because we sponsor a rather large number of children.
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:47 am
I love the site! I can’t get my sponsored kids to download either. I checked and I’m using the same email as my account.
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:56 am
@Alice – Please confirm that you tried the manual import feature addressed in the FAQ.
If you did and your children did not import, please send me your sponsor number via the blog contact us form.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:05 am
This is a great idea. I have an account and have already found 2 people who sponsor kids in the same project. I have some pictures from past visits and have a place to share them with others. I hope to take a missions trip back to the Philippines next year and I hope I can bring something for others who sponsor in the same project. We all may not have the ability to travel on mission’s trips, due to age or health or finances but it is nice to share pictures of the projects, and bring personal gifts for other sponsors.
For us non- teens we are trying to figure out just how to use something like this. I have a face book account but I don’t really see a need for it. As an adult I just talk to people I know. But this new sight (our compassion) is cool because we can meet sponsors from all over the world. I hope that some day all the sponsors in my Childs project are members of this sight…how cool will that be!!!!! We can help each other out and help the kids more effectively.
This might be controversial but it would be nice if each country office had an account, a place they can post things and Pictures…a place that projects & project workers can place things. I have found project works posting videos…on you tube. I have also seen sponsored kids make comments. This is dangerous because people could start communicating directly with sponsored kids. Maybe the web sight is something that compassion can facilitate and regulate. If compassion does not regulate electronic communication it will be easy for people to start end running around the ministry and I don’t think that will be good for the ministry and sponsors. But it would be nice to know if a project has a need. Maybe it’s something that could be a one way communications between to project and the world or maybe the country office and the world.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:27 am
@Chris Giovagnoni – I am also not able to import my sponsorship (automatically or manually), I have verified that the email address is the same on both ends. It is the only one I use. I only sponsor 1 child. Frustrating!! My sponsor # is xxxxx. Thanks!
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:44 am
Thank you so much for this new site! I love the idea, as I’ve been wanting to talk to other sponsors for quite a while.
I have a question, though: is it possible to use the site with a nickname (obviously submitting my real name with the application)? I’m asking because some people have concerns about using their real name online and would prefer to use a nick. I for one have reasons for never using my real name online, which is why I’m asking. I don’t mind my name being visible in my profile etc., where only registered and verified members can see it, but I don’t want my real name to appear everywhere I post on the site. I’d love to join, so is this possible? If not, I completely understand; just thought I’d ask.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:55 am
Chris,
I’m even having trouble getting an email out to you through the blog comment form. I have been unable to get my sponsorships on the new website. Is there anything else I can do? By the way, this is so neat!!!
Erica
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:07 pm
@Erica – I received your “contact us email” containing your sponsor number. I’ll get back to you when I know what may be happening.
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:12 pm
@Chris Giovagnoni –
Thanks Chris!
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:22 pm
@Anna – Your question is a good idea for a future enhancement, but it’s not something the site supports yet.
It’s been added to our “to do” list.
June 22nd, 2009 at 2:04 pm
@Kristen – @Erica – @Alice – I have associated your sponsor number with your OurCompassion profiles. You should be able to manually import your children now.
@Lindy – I also associated your sponsor number with your OurCompassion profile. You can try to manually import your children now, but you may still experience a “time out” problem that prevents them from connecting to your profile.
We will continue working on a permanent fix for this both of these issues.
June 22nd, 2009 at 2:15 pm
@Chris Giovagnoni –
Thanks Chris! They are all present and accounted for on my profile. It’s so nice to see their faces there!! I love the new website.
June 22nd, 2009 at 2:26 pm
@Chris Giovagnoni – Thanks Chris! How awesome to see my kids’ beautiful faces out there – even my correspondence kids are there! Can I take advantage of your generosity with one more request? My daughter, who is 15, has 2 correspondence children also. Could they appear on my profile? She has the same email address associated with her account as I do but her sponsor number is xxxxx Is that possible??
June 22nd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
@Chris Giovagnoni – Hey Chris, I have worked with computers for 30 years so I don’t consider myself “illiterate”, but I am getting noplace with ourcompassion. When I signed up, there was a link to import my kids from Compassion, but it wouldn’t work. Now, I can’t even find a link to do same. Can ya help me out?
June 22nd, 2009 at 2:47 pm
@Garry – Send me your sponsor number via the blog contact us form and let me know how many children you sponsor. I’ll take a look at your account.
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:08 pm
@Kristen – Not at this time.
Two sponsor numbers sharing the same email address in our database prevents the children from being automatically imported into OurCompassion. That is why you had a problem initially.
I was able to “force” OC to associate your sponsor number with your email address and that allowed you to import your children, but there isn’t currently a way for us to associate two sponsor numbers with the same email address on the same OurCompassion profile.
This may be something we consider in the future.
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:35 pm
We registered but we can’t get our sponsorship information to import and now I can’t find how to try again. Help!
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:45 pm
@Chris Giovagnoni –
Chris,
I have not gotten the confirmation email yet, will it come eventually? Can you check that for me or should I re-register?
June 22nd, 2009 at 6:24 pm
@Chris Giovagnoni – Yay! That’s exciting…expcept when I tried to import them manually, it said it was unsuccessful. Maybe I’ll just send you my sponsor number, like you’ve suggested to other people.
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:07 pm
@Rhonda – Please send me an email via the blog contact us form. Include your sponsor number and the number of children you sponsor.
I will also ask the developers to look into what you and Garry experienced (i.e., the import feature disappearing after you were unable to manually import your children).
@Mike Stephens – Please check your spam and junk folders. Yahoo frequently thinks OurCompassion emails are junk.
If the email isn’t there, let me know.
@Amy Wallace – Yes.
Please send me your sponsor number and let me know how many children you sponsor.
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Chris, It sounds as if you must have spent much of the day trying to solve little glitches. I did try again to manually import our sponsorships, but it still doesn’t work. I appreciate all your efforts on our behalf!! Hopefully in a few more days, the problems will be ironed out. Blessings on you!!!
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Hi Chris,
I haven’t received a confirmation email either. Nothing in my spam/junk folder from OC. Can you look into that?
Thank you!
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:27 pm
@Chris Thank you!
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:38 pm
@Chris Giovagnoni – Oops, I read this after I sent you my sponsor number, so I didn’t include how many children I sponsor. I sponsor 5 (I just sent my information for my 5th child a couple weeks ago, so I don’t know if they have it all processed yet)
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:47 pm
@Chris
The source of the child info is probably the issue here… I see my kids, but their photos are older versions that what my web account displays… lol
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Our IT folks are investigating the cause(s) of the import problem. I have given them each one of your names and expect to know more on Tuesday, because they’re not really working on the problem in the middle of the night
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:02 pm
Hello Chris and all. We will be getting this sponsorship import issue resolved as soon as our IT team is back at it in the morning. Sorry for this issue and the delay. I’ll stay in touch.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:08 am
@Chris Giovagnoni – Thanks for all your work on this Chris!!
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:11 am
Hi!
I sponsor a child through compassion canada but have some correspondent children through compassion international. is it possible for me to have all my children on my account? Or if I had to choose… then would I be able to switch to have my children on my canadian account on OurCompassion?
thanks!!
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:25 am
Hi Chris.
I just registered with OC this morning (with the same email address) and since sponsorships are not being imported at the moment, will it automatically import them once things are up and running again or do I need to do something specific to make that happen?
Thanks for all you’re doing to enable us to use this great new tool!
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:54 am
Hey Chris (And the IT guys), I just wanted to say how much we really appreciate you being the go to guy and being so patient with all of us. You really show us Jesus, if Jesus had been a computer guy.
Thank you.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Hello everyone. We’ve resolved “most” of our Sponsorship Import issues but have a bit more to accomplish before I can give the green light. I’ll post a few instructions soon on how to import your sponsorships once our team is finished. Thanks for your patience. And Bob, you were right… it was a data source issue. Stay tuned…
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:54 pm
@Stephanie G – Once the problem is fixed, you will have to do a manual import. The automatic import, when it works right, only occurs during the initial account setup.
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Canadian sponsors trying to import your children:
Some of us Canadian sponsors have had trouble importing our children. A friend, Noelia, responded on my wall with this – Noelia – hope you don’t mind me C&Ping. She’d e-mailed the site and was sent this in reply:
We are about to launch the site to our Canadian sponsors in July, and are in the midst of making adjustments and fixing certain aspects on our end. This is most likely why you are having these difficulties.
If you could try again a week or two into July, and let us know if there are any further problems at that point, that would be greatly
appreciated.
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:58 pm
I joined OurCompassion awhile back and have enjoyed meeting people and reading what others have to say. It really does bring us all together and make that global community seem a bit smaller. I’m picking up a couple of Portuguese phrases that I can use when writing to my little sponsor child in Brazil and I know a of Spanish phrases, too.
I can’t wait to watch this site expand and unfold!
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Chris and the computer guys, I wanted to say how much we really appreciate this project and how cool this web sight is and will be.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:22 pm
@Chris Giovagnoni – I love the OurCompassion site!! Been on it for a couple weeks now and have communicated with several people – it is great! Thanks Chris and all involved! Sheryl
June 24th, 2009 at 3:31 am
We apologize for the issues over the past 24 hours with importing your sponsorships into OurCompassion. Our IT team has resolved the issue and things are ready for you to “push the button” to import your kids into your profiles. Here are the instructions for completing your import:
1. Log into OurCompassion here: http://www.ourcompassion.org/default.aspx?p=login-register
2. Enter the “edit profile” area above your profile picture. Proceed to the “sponsorships” tab.
3. Use your primary email address (username) or enter a secondary email address as instructed. Choose an email address that matches the one you have on file with Compassion. Press the “import now” button.
4. Return to your main profile page and your sponsored children and students should now appear.
June 24th, 2009 at 5:20 am
I just tried all that, and it still doesn’t work! Is anyone else still having trouble with this?
June 24th, 2009 at 7:41 am
Yes. Please let us know if you’re still having problems.
@Lindy – Your import issue is different than what was worked on yesterday. Solving the import “time out” that occurs because of the number of children you sponsor – is going to take more time.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:19 am
Thanks, Chris!
June 24th, 2009 at 10:33 am
i am still having trouble!!! when i click on the sponsorship tab, the only thing i can do is click on the update button which doesn’t do anything for me! i would really like to have my sponsored child through compassion canada on OurCompassion!!!
June 24th, 2009 at 11:38 am
@Rebecca – I suspect you’re still having trouble because you sponsor children through Compassion Canada and have correspondence children through Compassion U.S.
Do you have two sponsor numbers, one from each office? Are both numbers associated with same email address?
I can associate one of the numbers with your OC profile and then you can import the children connected to that sponsor number. You won’t be able to have both sets of children on your OurCompassion profile.
Use the blog contact us form to send me the sponsor number you want associated with your OC account.
June 24th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
I was able to import my sponsored children!! Thank you Russ, Chris, and IT Team!
June 24th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Hello everyone.
If you are still having difficulty importing your children, and you have a lot of children that you sponsor or correspond with (somewhere around 10 or more), the fix that Russ mentioned will not work.
We are aware of this issue, and I’ve been told that addressing it will not be a quick fix.
July 7th, 2009 at 4:00 am
I joined up and the system couldn’t find my sponsored child. I contacted the UK office, who I sponsor through on the 26th June and just received a reply giving me the step by step instructions to add my child through the profile page, which is exactly the thing that isn’t working so I’m no further along to being able to use the site properly.
July 10th, 2009 at 8:22 am
@Chris Giovagnoni – Hey Chris, I’m still having trouble importing my children onto my profile. It seems that just about every other Canadian sponsor is able to import their children, though. It’s saying sponsorship details not retrieved.
July 13th, 2009 at 8:49 am
@Amy Wallace – I will ask someone from Compassion Canada to help you.