The Mission Of The Sponsorship Program

• Ease the pain that comes from a lack of the physical necessities.
• Provide support so families can care for their children and elders.
• Open the curtain of the unknown and hidden so that positive intercultural relationships are possible.

What Sponsors Do to Help

Sponsors send regular (4 or 5 times a year: Christmas, Fall, Spring, Summer, Birthdays) gift boxes to the person or family they are sponsoring. The box contents are the decision of the sponsor. We recommend clothing, personal hygiene items, books, toys for children, shoes, and boots. Often the family will have a specific need, such as a sleeping bag for the Big Foot Ride or school supplies.

Sponsors provide funding for emergency needs and for programs. The initial and annual membership donation is $60.00. This donation allows us to have funds for emergency needs such as food, medicine, or heaters. This eliminates the need to send cash directly to those being sponsored.

Sponsors also have opportunities to

• Purchase SHARE packages of food
• Contribute toward heaters
• Contribute toward emergencies such as roofs blown off or broken pumps
• Help college students with books, clothes, and supplies

What Kinds of Sponsorships Are There?

Direct sponsorships are for elders, children, families and young adults who contact us for help. They do so out of desperation, but (more importantly) out of hope.

• For example, a sponsor helps a grandmother in her 70’s trying to raise two grandchildren in a single room. The children are babies.
• Another sponsor helps a young man in college. Public transportation is getting better, but still limited. He has to walk a long way. But he is trying to get ahead. By going to school, he has a better future, but not the opportunity to work or a family able to provide support for food, clothing, or school supplies.
• Yet other sponsors help children who are excellent students in school, but would have no well-fitting, seasonal clothes, or shoes without help.
• A sponsor has been found for an elder living alone with ill health, extremely poor housing, but a wonderful sense of humor.

Project Share Sponsorships provide funding for food packages. See the Project Share Tab.

Indirect sponsorships are donations of money toward projects, such as heaters, educational and art camps for children, youth mentoring programs, and the Big Foot Ride.

How to Become a Sponsor

Our process is very easy. Just email Regina Hay, Sponsorship Coordinator, at the email address below. You will receive a personal note, a checklist, and an FAQ. Just save the checklist, type your responses into it, and email your copy back. The information is referred out to one of the Area Service Coordinators who maintain the lists of those who have requested help. The Area Service Coordinator contacts you to explore making a match. It’s that easy. I hope to hear from you soon!

Regina Hay, Sponsorship Coordinator rhay@nativeprogress.org