We’re in the midst of a campaign to takeover the Water.org Twitter account.

Water.org’s 432,000 Twitter followers represent a whole new audience for us. An audience that may not know what we do, why we do it or who we do it for.

We’ve asked you to vote and to encourage others to vote.

And we need you to keep doing that so we can tell nearly half a million people that:

1. Our Water of Life system is a simple, cost effective and proven solution for providing clean water to families in need.

   The system effectively eliminates parasites and bacterial contaminants that cause cholera, typhoid, E. coli, amoebic dysentery and many other devastating diseases.

   

   And it will provide at least one million gallons of clean drinking water — more than enough for the lifetime of a child.

2. What makes us distinct from other organizations is we’re about Jesus and always will be. We are Christ centered. We “release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.”
3. Unlike other organizations which fight poverty in the developing world, we’re child focused. We develop children, who in turn develop their communities. We give children in poverty opportunities to succeed. Each child we serve is ministered to personally, spiritually, economically, socially and physically.
4. We do all of our work through the local church. The Church is the great hope for the world and is God’s instrument to advance His kingdom. We mobilize and connect the global Body of Christ to fulfill her mandate to care for the poor.
5. We are 100 percent donor supported. We do not take any funds from any government.
6. We are more than a child sponsorship organization. We are a child development organization. And we’re not just working for the children in our programs, we’re working for all children in poverty.

   Our programs are personal, individualized and relational. They’re tailored to age, gender, health, culture and family situation.

   Our commitment is long term because children have long term needs.

   And our commitment is to eradicate extreme poverty from the face of the earth by 2035.

That’s what we’re fighting for. Thanks for your help in this.

Here are some ready-made tweets for you to share.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Water.org is a four-star charity working to draw attention to the problem of unsafe drinking water and inadequate water supplies in the developing world.

They also have more than 432,000 Twitter followers and are running a contest to turn the keys over to their Twitter account. We want those keys. And we need you to get them for us.

Please vote for us to takeover the Water.org Twitter account.

The person or organization that receives the most votes by August 31 will be able to tweet about anything and everything for an entire week in September.

We are currently in second place, up against some stiff competition with a broad social reach. (Updated: Aug. 13)

By voting you are opening the door for us to share our Water of Life initiative with Water.org’s followers, as well as allowing us to speak to a whole new audience about what we do, why we do it and who we do it for.

Since you can only vote once, it’s important that you encourage your friends to vote for us as well.

Here are some ready-made tweets for you to share.

Thanks for your time and support with this. We greatly appreciate it.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

The Internet and Social Media has made the world a little smaller, more familiar and allows people to communicate in ways that have not been possible in past generations. Websites like Facebook or Twitter unite people for a cause, educate or reconnect long lost friends. But as with anything else, with the good comes the bad.

Recently there has been some buzz about smartphones, geotagging and what that means for the photos you place on social media sites you use.

Smartphones have the ability to track your location by attaching latitude and longitude coordinates to the photos you take with your phone. This is called geotagging and it is a feature built into many of today’s smartphones.

Geotagging data attached to your photos allows someone to determine, with great accuracy, the whereabouts of your home, your place of work or even your child’s school. Many people are unaware this feature exists on their smartphones and innocently post personal photos online ignorant of the potential security risks they are taking.

Thankfully, turning off your smartphone’s geotagging feature is fairly simple. Because each smartphone is different, however, we recommend you go to your phone manufacturer’s website to get exact instructions on how to do this.

Safe boundaries are important not just for our children but for you, our sponsors, as well. In blog posts like What Should I Do if My Sponsored Child Contacts Me Via Facebook? and Why Can’t I Communicate With My Sponsored Child Via Facebook? we outline some of the reasons behind Compassion’s communication policies.

As a child advocacy organization, we believe that children should be kept safe and protected in all situations, including online. The reality is, there are unscrupulous people in this world and we want to educate you with posts like these so that you can make informed, wise decisions with the data you share on social media sites.

Technology is ever growing, changing and evolving. It is easy to get intimidated by it all but don’t let it scare you away. Online communication is a great tool. We just need to be safer and smarter about the personal information we share with others.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

For the past few weeks, I have been watching Twitter to see where the phrase “sponsor a child” pops up.

Many tweets express a desire to sponsor a child. One person tweeted that she wanted a job – not so that she could buy anything for herself, but so she could sponsor another child.

Some tweeted about sponsoring a child through Compassion, while others chose different organizations.

I felt this tweet from @Katyyyy343 was particularly striking.

So…decided that I want to sponsor a child instead of getting bday presents even though my bday is 5 months away still.

In contrast, I saw another tweet that talked about sponsoring a child after graduation because the commercial she saw on TV hurt her heart. Regrettably, at least I think it’s regrettable, I saw many similar tweets.

During employee orientation, I had the opportunity to take our building tour. In our Global Ministry Center, pictures of children are everywhere – in the foyer, in hallways, in cubicles, pretty much everywhere you look.

As the tour progressed, the leader spoke about how we strongly believe in upholding the dignity of the children and families we serve. We will not depict poverty by using pictures of children that have large bellies due to malnutrition, or pictures of toddlers naked with flies on their face.

If a mom sees the picture we have taken of her child, we want her to feel proud – not ashamed.

Seeing a child in such dire circumstances – uncared for – hurts my heart. I’m sure it affects many people so deeply that they take action; they pick up the phone or go online to sponsor a child. But at what cost?

So where’s the line? How should we express the urgent needs of the children in our programs while maintaining their dignity?

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

One of the speakers was David Kinnaman, president of The Barna Group. At the end of his presentation David bluntly told everyone assembled that Compassion’s business model is out of date.

He didn’t suggest it. He declared it. As fact. “Your business model is out of date.”

He didn’t say it might happen in the future. He said it’s here.

He didn’t position it as his opinion to consider. He delivered this “truth” directly, firmly and respectfully. It was refreshing.

A month later, Jon Dale, of Dale Interactive Group, told me the same thing over lunch.

In our highly connected digital world the technology exists for you to speak directly to your sponsored children, via Skype, Facebook, Twitter, etc.. So the idea of developing a meaningful, one-to-one, cross-cultural relationship via handwritten letters that can take up to three months to travel in one direction and another few months to travel back is outdated.

There are reasons we don’t yet offer you the ability to communicate directly with your sponsored children via social media. And there are reasons we ask that you don’t accept or initiate friend requests with your sponsored children via social media.

But we know that we must replace our antiquated communication process with one that offers you compelling ways to communicate with your sponsored children. We know that we can’t wait any longer to do this.

However, it’s not just the communication process we need to address. We also have to carefully consider what one-to-one child sponsorship should look like in the digital world. How can we use the tools of technology to make your participation in the development of these children more than just financial support and writing letters?

Although we’re not a sponsor-focused organization – we’re child focused – or a sponsor development organization, we know that “we” don’t exist without “you.” We can’t succeed without God’s blessing and your support.

What do you think about what I’ve said? Do you agree with David and Jon … and me? What do you think Compassion needs to do or consider when redefining what child sponsorship delivers to you?

Now is the time to share your opinions, particularly if you don’t normally comment. As our leadership team begins to answer these questions, it’s better that they know what you think rather than make assumptions about what you think.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Beginning later today and continuing through Friday, October 2, we will periodically update our Facebook fan page status with questions about this here blog.

If you answer the question correctly and are the randomly selected winner, you will be the envy of all your friends and the new owner of nice Live for Him T-shirt.

You choose size and color — either the deeply stellar black body enhancer above or one of the vividly bold red variety.

We will announce the winner for each question before we post the next question.

Have fun!

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Beginning today and continuing through this Friday (Sept. 25), we will send out tweets about specific children in need of sponsors.

And we’d like you to retweet them for us.

When you do, you’ll be eligible to win your choice of some free Live for Him* apparel:

• T-shirts
• caps
• rings
• wristbands

Every retweet counts as an entry, and winners will be randomly selected.

Once that child is sponsored, we’ll tweet information about another child, and we’ll follow that process for the duration of the week.

UPDATE: 9:05 a.m. – When you click on the child link in a tweet and you don’t see the specific child’s biography, it means that somone is considering the sponsorship. If the sponsorship isn’t finalized within 50 minutes, the child will be visible again.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Do I have fun on occasion? You bet. Is most of it work? Always, and did I mention that saving kids from poverty is my commitment? No? Well, there you go.

Recently I was sent by Compassion to the Forrester’s Consumer Forum which is a think-tank of an organization in the marketing industry.

Forrester speaks precisely about ways companies can target trends and future ideas for getting a product or organization into the eyes of the public through social media.

Some serious marketing research takes place. Seriously.

I was there to learn from the experts about social networking techniques for the internet.

Now I see those wheels turning. Compassion’s trying to be trendy? Compassion looks at the future of the marketing industry? Compassion sees a child as a product?

Well, sort of.

What I discovered in the forum is that huge corporations are dishing out millions if not billions to give their products a pleasing experience that you can relate to.

A pleasing experience with toothpaste? A pleasing experience with credit cards?

How about the experience of sponsoring a child?

I am proud to say that Compassion is doing exactly what it should, from a social media perspective, to help children in poverty.

We are giving the world a true experience of a child sponsorship.

Through churches, through word of mouth, through the internet, through this blog and through our social networks such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter,

Compassion is changing lives.

Yes, the world is changing and we at Compassion are changing with it, and that’s a good move, right? That’s a healthy choice you can agree with, right?

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates