Origins of Child Sponsorship: Save the Children Fund in the 1920s

Abstract

Brad Watson argues that the origins of individual child sponsorship are poorly understood to the point that that at least three large organizations have been incorrectly credited with founding the international sponsorship of children in the 1930s or 1940s. Those interested in early child sponsorship are invariably left with important questions. When and where did it begin? How did it function? What challenges and achievements are evident in early child sponsorship programs? Based on extensive archival research the author concludes that child sponsorship was pioneered in 1919 or the early 1920s by the Save the Children Fund in the UK, and the Society of Friends. In its early years the sponsorship of individuals provided for short-term food-aid to children in Post WWI Europe with subsequent adoption of Child Sponsorship as a fundraising model by other organizations through the 1940s.