OSP Price Increase FAQs

The new price is 65 Euros for across all countries in which Islamic Relief runs an orphan sponsorship programme.

The price increase will be effective from 1^st January 2023 for all new sponsorships.

The dramatic increase in the cost of living over the past few years has caused a major impact on people in many parts of the world. This has had greater effect on orphan families and their ability to cover even essential needs. We therefore made the decision to increase the pricing and ultimately give more to the orphan families.

We have found it was becoming increasingly difficult to meet the basic needs of the orphans’ families in most countries at current prices. This is the first time we have reviewed the sponsorship prices in 20 years. Considering the impact of inflation and soaring costs worldwide, we felt this was the right time for increases.

For now, there is nothing for you to do, sponsorship will continue as normal. However, we will be writing to you in due course to set out a transition period, for you to be able to move over to the new pricing. We appreciate it is a large increase for some and would like to work with you to gradually bring you up to the new pricing.

We plan to review the pricing every few years, and if required we may gradually increase the price in line with inflation and cost of living. We do not expect such a major increase when setting prices in the future. 

We are aware of some charities offering much lower sponsorship prices, however we do not base our prices on what other charities are doing but rather on meeting the basic needs of the orphaned children we support. In addition to the dramatic increased cost of living, we have carried out a consultation with our frontline oprhans teams who have regular contact with the sponsored families on this issue. It became clear we had no other option but to increase prices. In fact, to meet the current needs of the families required an even greater increase, but we were conscious that not all our donors would be able to meet this such a big increase. We feel the new price would give the families a much-needed boost to their income, to cover their essential needs while being affordable to most donors.

We appreciate that you may be able to sponsor orphans for less through other charities, but you can also take comfort that giving more funds will mean that money will reach the orphan families to meet more of their needs, especially in these very difficult times.

The 3-tier system was rolled out over 20 years ago, which was based on the cost of living at the time. Over the years, it became clear that most of our donor were sponsoring orphans in the lower tier and fewer orphans were being supported in the higher tier. Instead, we have gone for a fixed amount across all countries to create more fairness.  However, if a family has greater need for example due to the size of the family, we can look to add an extra sponsorship by sponsoring one more of the other children

Any new sponsorships from 1^st January 2023 would be on the new pricing, even if you are a current sponsor on the old price. We hope that over time we can move all current donors onto the new pricing, with an agreed transition period.

Almost all our children come from orphan families, where the father has died or is absent and his whereabouts unknown. We sometimes consider cases where the father isn’t supporting the child, for example due to being divorce with the mother or where the father is disabled and unable to provide for the family. These circumstances are special and looked at on a case-by-case basis.

Yes, you can request that the child you sponsor is an orphan whose father has passed away, or absent and his whereabouts unknown, rather than a non-orphan child in need.

We will continue to provide the same level of reporting as we currently do in the form of an individual report for each sponsored orphan. Presently over 85,000 sponsored orphans globally are prepared and sent to donors.

Please note that all existing sponsorships will be kept at the original price levels for up to 3 years. We will be asking all current donors to switch over to new price during this time. If after the 3 years you are still unable to sponsor at the new price, then your money will be transferred to an Orphan Health and Education Fund which will be a pooled fund supporting multiple orphans with specific medical and educational needs. You will not need to pay any extra for this fund. A standard annual report will be provided to all donors to this Fund, covering the impact of the fund and highlights on specific cases.

We are aware of some charities offering much lower sponsorship prices, however we do not base our prices on what other charities are doing but rather on meeting the basic needs of the orphaned children we support. In addition to the dramatic increased cost of living, we have carried out a consultation with our frontline orphans teams who have regular contact with the sponsored families on this issue. It became clear we had no other option but to increase prices. In fact, to meet the current needs of the families required an even greater increase, but we were conscious that not all our donors would be able to meet this such a big increase. We feel the new price would give the families a much-needed boost to their income, to cover their essential needs while being affordable to most donors.