Hello all, I am looking for some advice or thoughts on a topic and I thought this group might have some to offer!

When I was in high school during a church camp I signed up to be a sponsor for compassion international. It’s been about ten years since then, and in the last few years I have moved away from religion and been educated about how harmful missionary work to foreign countries can actually be and how rooted in colonialism it is. I feel pretty uneasy about being tied to something like that and giving it money (plus now as an adult I don’t have the same freedom with my income), but at the same time I feel that suddenly ending my sponsorship could be more harmful to the child I sponsor so I haven’t cancelled my donation yet.

I have tried to research the ethics of these types of organizations and haven’t found much helpful information— mostly anything I find comes from the company itself saying how great it is, or websites that inform how honest a charity is (and it does seem the money actually goes where they say it does, which is something at least). I can’t really find anything on the ethics of the company model itself.

If you have any knowledge on this topic I would love to hear it, or if you could point me toward any resources that would help that would be wonderful. I just don’t know what the more harmful option is, to withdraw my support or keep going.