Summary
Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) creates a worldwide community of compassion through personal outreach.
CFCA’s highest priority is one-to-one sponsorship of children, youth and aging. CFCA sponsorship is a reciprocal relationship of mutual respect and support.
Founded in 1981 and headquartered in Kansas City, Kan., Christian Foundation for Children and Aging serves more than 317,000 children, youth and the aging in 25 developing countries. Through the generous support of primarily U.S.-based sponsors, CFCA provides basic life necessities, such as food, education, health care and more. Additionally, the organization provides livelihood training programs for parents, and seeks to help families become self-sustaining, live with dignity and effect change in their communities. Sponsors get to know their sponsored friends through letters and photographs, and some sponsors travel to meet the people they support on CFCA-hosted mission awareness trips. CFCA is grounded in the Gospel call to serve the poor and works with persons of all faith traditions. Please visit www.cfcausa.org, or call (800) 875-6564 or (913) 384-6500 for more information.
Contact Information: [ Back to top ]
| Mailing Address: | One Elmwood Ave
Kansas City, KS
66103-3719 |
| Website: | www.cfcausa.org |
| Phone: | (800) 875-6564 |
| Email: | You need to enable javascript to see the email |
Organization Details [ Back to top ]
EIN: 431243999
| CEO/President: |
Mr. Robert Hentzen |
Tax Deductible: |
Yes |
| Chairman: |
Mr. Scott Wasserman |
Fiscal Year End: |
December 31 |
| Board Size: |
13 |
Financial info from: |
990 |
| Founder: |
Hentzen siblings & Jerry Tolle |
Member of ECFA: |
No |
| Year Founded: |
1981 |
Member of ECFA since: |
|
Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) creates a worldwide community of compassion through personal outreach.
CFCA’s highest priority is one-to-one sponsorship of children, youth and aging. CFCA sponsorship is a reciprocal relationship of mutual respect and support.
Founded in 1981 and headquartered in Kansas City, Kan., Christian Foundation for Children and Aging serves more than 317,000 children, youth and the aging in 25 developing countries. Through the generous support of primarily U.S.-based sponsors, CFCA provides basic life necessities, such as food, education, health care and more. Additionally, the organization provides livelihood training programs for parents, and seeks to help families become self-sustaining, live with dignity and effect change in their communities. Sponsors get to know their sponsored friends through letters and photographs, and some sponsors travel to meet the people they support on CFCA-hosted mission awareness trips. CFCA is grounded in the Gospel call to serve the poor and works with persons of all faith traditions. Please visit www.cfcausa.org, or call (800) 875-6564 or (913) 384-6500 for more information.
Christian Foundation for Children and Aging uses the following to express its mission:
CFCA’s mission is to walk with the poor and marginalized of the world.
- We provide personal attention and direct benefits to children, youth, aging and their families so they may live with dignity, achieve their desired potential and participate fully in society.
- We invite people of good will to live in daily solidarity with the world’s poor through one-to-one sponsorship.
- We build community by fostering relationships of mutual respect, understanding and support that are culturally diverse, empowering and without religious or other prejudice.
Grounded in the Gospel call to serve the poor, CFCA is a lay Catholic organization working with persons of all faith traditions to create a worldwide community of compassion and service.
Program Accomplishments [ Back to top ]
As of Jan. 1, 2008:
- 317,097 children, youth, aging and vocational candidates are served through CFCA
- 273,991 individuals sponsor a CFCA child, youth or aging friend
CFCA Scholarship Program:
- In 2007, 3,410 CFCA young people completed their education and graduated.
- In 2006, CFCA awarded more than $1.9 million through 6,616 scholarships for secondary, post-secondary and vocational education, almost triple the number awarded in 2001.
The following story is an example of how sponsorship affects the lives of sponsored members: Seventeen-year-old Christian, of the Antipolo project in the Philippines, has worked extra hard to attain his dream of becoming a teacher. His parents are farmers and have little or no schooling. They moved frequently to seek work, and Christian fell behind in school. Sponsorship enabled Christian to complete his elementary school education, but he was much older than his classmates. Christian received several academic awards for his outstanding performance. He is now enrolled in a national high school and well on his way to becoming a teacher. He is thankful for CFCA sponsorship, which has helped him continue his education, provided monthly nutrition and developed his talents in dancing and playing bamboo instruments. “God is so good,” he said. “He shortens the time for me to attain my dream. I thank the sponsors and the staff for listening to us and helping us in our needs.”
Statement of Faith [ Back to top ]
Christian Foundation for Children and Aging uses the following to express its Statement of Faith:
CFCA is a lay Catholic organization working with persons of all faith traditions to create a worldwide community of compassion and service.
CFCA is grounded in the Gospel call to serve the poor. We recognize Christ embodied in each person and prayerfully strive to apply the preferential option for the poor expressed in Catholic social doctrine.
CFCA began in 1981 through the visionary leadership of Bob, Bud and Jim Hentzen, their sister, Nadine Pearce, and their friend Jerry Tolle. When Bob Hentzen and Tolle returned to the U.S. after being missionaries in Latin America, they had a desire to continue serving the poor in developing countries.
Early on, they decided that sponsorship was the perfect opportunity to address extreme poverty and give people of good will in the U.S. and the poor in developing countries a way to be in relationship with each other. Bob Hentzen and Tolle emphasized sponsorship as a reciprocal relationship that recognizes and respects the dignity and equality of all persons. CFCA's current mission statement conveys the same ideas and principles. CFCA moved from the basement of Bob Hentzen's home to a farmhouse in south Kansas City and finally, in 1991, to a converted warehouse in the industrial district close to downtown Kansas City.
Bob Hentzen currently serves as the organization’s president and oversees international operations. Based in Guatemala, he spends about three-fourths of his time visiting CFCA projects around the world and interacting with sponsors traveling on CFCA mission awareness trips to meet their sponsored friends.
Today, CFCA serves some 317,000 children, youth and the aging in 25 countries with the help of more than 273,000 sponsors. The organization accomplishes its work in developing countries through independent CFCA legal entities and by partnering with community organizations, missionary orders and churches at more than 70 projects and 1,700 subproject sites in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. In witness to CFCA's love for the poor, Bob Hentzen, in 1996 (at the age of 60), walked from Kansas City to Guatemala. His walk serves as a touchstone moment for CFCA and is symbolic of the organization’s mission to be in solidarity with or, in other words, to “walk with” the poor and marginalized of the world.
Christian Foundation for Children and Aging has expressed the following needs:
CFCA invites people of good will to commit to an ongoing relationship in which they contribute $30 a month in sponsorship support and encourage their sponsored friend through correspondence.
CFCA also seeks donors for its scholarship program. CFCA scholarships provide educational assistance to youth in developing countries who wish to attend secondary school, college or vocational school but lack economic resources.
Research Analysis
Transparency Grade [ Back to top ]
| Transparency Grade of : A |
| Criteria category | Grade | Other Comments |
| Timeliness: | 100 | |
| Financial Information: | 100 | |
| Foundational Clarity: | | |
| Level of Cooperation: | 100 | 10/21/2011 5:04:33 PM: Answers to questions were thorough. |
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MinistryWatch.com 5 Star Financial Efficiency Ratings [ Back to top ]
| Ranking Category | Rating | Overall Rank | Relief and Development Sector |
|---|
| Overall Efficiency Rating |  | 54 of 348 | 20 of 52 |
| Fund Acquisition Decision |  | 54 of 348 | 20 of 52 |
| Resource Allocation Decision | | of 348 | 1 of 52 |
| Asset Utilization Decision | | of 348 | 1 of 52 |
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