Birthday/Christmas Gift vs Extra Gifts Cancel Title is required

I understand that money I send for Birthday and Christmas gifts is pooled with money from other sponsors in my child's area and used to provide gifts for all the children in the program.  If I want to send a gift specifically for my child, would I sent that as an EG and indicate in the comments that it is for her birthday/Christmas? If so, how far ahead should I send it to make sure it's received in time? 

Thanks!
Kimberly

4 to 6 weeks, for Christmas 6 to 8 weeks because its a busy occasion.

Ah yes, good point about giving a bit more time for the Christmas gift.
Thank you very much!

Hi Kimberly - I'm curious about how you decided to handle birthday and Christmas gifts because I'm still trying to figure it out myself. Do you give pooled B-day/Xmas gifts on autopay and also give an additional EG specifically for your kids? ...or just one or the other?

Bob -

We personally have it set up to do both.  We were just charged for one of the kids' (Jun's) auto-pay gifts (birthday is late Aug) so that's the money pooled into the general funds for everyone to get their standard birthday gift.  Next week we will be sending an EG and note that it is for their birthday.

Our other kid, John, had his b-day already and we sent an EG with a note.  I think we said something like "Please assign <$25 or so for a luxury item for his birthday.  Maybe a cake or something too?  Of course, the family can decide what is best."  Pretty open ended and no requirement it be exclusively for the occasion since we don't know his life and needs.  The story of the EG is on our account and we were very happy with the results.  


We, of course, are fortunate enough to afford both options so we choose to do so.  This is also why we only sponsor the two children so we are not over-extended and are able to provide these extra gifts.  

Hi BennyNJun,

Thank you for your response. What you're doing is exactly ​what I was considering. I was just wondering if that was a typical solution. I'm happy to give something to the pooled funds to help every kid benefit, but I thought it would be good to also earmark funds specifically for my own kids. I think I'll follow your lead by giving a smaller amount to the pooled fund and additional EG's to my kids.

I learned the hard way that my Birthday EG gift was not exactly used as I had requested. I made the EG prior to Anjali's birthday and had requested a ​birthday present and a cake or sweets custom to the country and pretty much all of my EG was used for tutoring my sponsor ch​ild and her brother. She did choose a game toy  that she could play with her brother and a few packets of biscuits for herself and her brother to take to school. I think she also got a T-shirt out of it. It was not exactly what I had in mind but I know how important education is. So in the future I will make sure that both children are taken care of every year with tutoring before I send a personal birthday EG for her. I also learned by the way of her choosing ​that she includes her brother. ​That tells me that they must be very close. Even though he has his own sponsor (as I asked CI) I will make sure that I include him in my EG's as well. I learned from CI that there are no extra funds provided for him from his sponsor other then the monthly contribution. I decided to take care of the Extras for both children besides the tutoring for them and hope I will get smiling faces next time in those EG pictures. LOL

Bob -  
That's very generous of you!  Our philosophy is that when our two kids were without sponsors (or had sponsors that could not afford to send extra gifts) they probably greatly appreciated the gifts CI provided on their birthdays.  We want to "pay it forward" for all the kids out there that do not yet have sponsors, or that may not receive the luxury of an extra gift specifically for their birthday.  We've personally committed to $50 per child (and also $50 per child for Christmas) at this time.

I try to do the $100 EG's because I feel it can help the family the best way. For example for Angel at Christmas I did a $125 and told they family that each child should get an Christmas gift, They have 8 kids. I also send EG's for food for the family when I can. For Prisca I do shopzed orders for her and her family. Usually I do rice, mealie meal, beans and usually a treat. Most of the time I do fanta and biscuits. Most of the time I do an EG when I first sponsor them too, welcoming them to my sponsorship family

I finally went to my post mailbox and retrieved my mail. I receive several letters from CI, two of which are relating to my recent, I guess you can say gifts. When I read the letter both stated that the money I had sent is going towards by birthday and Christmas gifts for my child and other children. Before becoming upset, I was going to sign on and get clarification. I guess these posts answered my question, so now it leaves me feeling annoyed, more pissed. I sent 50 dollars for his birthday, which is in December and a 100 dollars for Christmas, thinking that it was going towards him. Just makes me contemplate whether to continue with the sponsorship or not. I'm sorry, but I already pay a monthly sponsorship any anything extra that I decide to send should just go to the child I sponsor and his family. 

The difference between Christmas and birthday gifts that benefit all children and Extra Gifts for your child alone is explained in the Give section and elsewhere, but you need to read all the texts carefully. Otherwise it can be confusing.

I thought I did...On my giving history, it just says Christmas-Andy, vice versa with the birthday. With all the different type of gift options, it can be a little confusing, so I might have sent the wrong one, but that doesn't make me feel any better. 

It should say "Extra Gift" in your giving history, if it ​is a gift just for your child. You can find the Extra Gift option when you click on the purple Give tab at the top of the page. 

I get your frustration.  It's confusing, especially for new sponsors.  I don't use the giving tab when I do my EG's.  I send an email to children@children.org and specify that I want to do a $XXX birthday gift for my child, ID # XXXXXXXX.   That way I can always look back on my sent emails and see when I gave the gift.  
Please don't give up on sponsoring and CI.  I researched many sponsoring organizations and found that CI is by far the best one.  

Hi Kenny, think about contacting CI about this.  They don't mean for it to be confusing and I know that they've "fixed" this in the past by taking the funds out of the general holiday fund and doing the EG when they've realized a new sponsor was confused.  They definitely don't want people to feel bad about sponsoring or CI because of it.

Hi Kenny239 - I sent you a personal email about this. I hope it helps.