Accountability & Praise

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

At Sisters of Mary World Villages for Children, we thrive on basic principles of transparency, impact, and sustainability.

Transparency: As an organization, we work very hard to use your money in the most efficient way and to focus on those in greatest need. When you donate to Sisters of Mary World Villages for Children, the money goes to our programs to maintain support to the children in school and to fund new places for those who need it the most.

Impact: By providing children from destitute families food, shelter, medical care, a quality education, and intensive vocational training, we empower them to provide a better life for themselves and their families. Because the many lives we touch in turn transform entire communities, we have witnessed the success of breaking the poverty cycle – over, and over again. To date, 150,000 children have graduated from our programs and had the opportunity to realize a brighter future.

Sustainability: In continuation to the stated impact, we aim to provide durable change for communities, and ultimately within every one of the societies where we operate our programs today. The commitment from our graduates is such that many “pay it forward”, and work to further the mission of the Sisters of Mary in one way or another – most end up lifting their entire families out of poverty, paying for their siblings to attend school and sometimes college; many give a helping hand to the Sisters and assist with the younger children who’ve come after them; some return to teach or fulfill other jobs for the schools; and others find a vocation to religious life.

The result is a lasting change that profoundly and effectively changes many more lives than those who have experienced our programs firsthand.

Sisters of Mary World Villages for Children abides by the internationally recognized Donor Bill of Rights and International Statement of Ethical Principles in Fundraising.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

As a donor to Sisters of Mary World Villages for Children, you play a critical role in allowing the Sisters of Mary to educate and care for children living in poverty around the world. With your help, the Sisters have so far educated 170,000 children in eighteen schools in six countries, thereby transforming the lives of these children living in poverty and creating new lives for them free from hunger and hopelessness.

Your regular donations pay for all the costs associated with our programs in the Philippines, Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Honduras, and Tanzania including food, accommodation, equipment, teaching salaries, books, stationery supplies, uniforms, shoes, medical care, and all the other ancillary costs involved in caring for over 21,000 energetic youngsters each school year. Your support helps us to improve the health of these children and to provide an academic and vocational education tailored to local industries and businesses.

Our children learn practical skills in subjects including electronics, bookkeeping, carpentry, car mechanics, technical drawing, computing, and dressmaking/tailoring. They achieve accreditation in these and many other subjects and progress into paid employment with many attaining long-term careers as doctors, dentists, nurses, engineers, accountants, and auditors. In turn they are then able to support their own families and communities with access to better healthcare and opportunities for education. To see the detail of our programs in each country, visit this page.

ESSENTIAL COSTS

Like most charities, Sisters of Mary World Villages for Children must incur essential costs if we are to ensure careful, compliant stewardship of donor income and provide a well-managed service in support of our beneficiaries. We reinvest regularly in fundraising to maintain our funding sources and support the daily costs of caring for more than 20,000 children every day. We are able to achieve considerable operating efficiencies by maintaining a small team of around 10 full-time staff. We strive to keep essential administration costs low and leverage the support of a network of dedicated partners to maximize the value of the donations received from our supporters, like you.

FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Most organizations exempt from federal income tax must file an annual information return (Form 990) on an annual basis. Some organizations, such as ours, are exempt from this. As a recognized Church-affiliated mission society where more than half of our activities are conducted in, or are directed at persons in, foreign countries, we are not required to file these annual returns.

This saves both administrative time and money for Sisters of Mary Children allowing us to direct more of your donations to direct program services – helping children break free from poverty.

In accordance with our commitment to transparency, Sisters of Mary Children does conduct a thorough annual audit and makes financial statements from the annual audit publicly available. This audit provides information typically available in a Form 990. To learn more about our programs by the numbers, we encourage you to review our independent Auditors’ Reports:

2023 Independent Auditors’ Report

2022 Independent Auditors’ Report

2021 Independent Auditors’ Report

2020 Independent Auditors’ Report

2019 Independent Auditors’ Report

For more information on the impact of your charity, please also see our: 2022 Gratitude Report

DONOR PRIVACY POLICY

Sisters of Mary World Villages for Children and the Sisters of Mary take the protection of donor privacy and your personal information seriously. As partners with you in this work, we want you to be fully aware of our responsibility to you. You may read the policy in full here.

CHILD PROTECTION POLICY

The Sisters of Mary make the protection and care of the children in their custody their top priority. The Child Protection and Anti-Bullying Policy sets out common values, principles, and beliefs and describes the steps that will be taken for the Sisters of Mary’s commitment to protect the children. You may read the policy in full here.