Organizing Your Sponsorship Materials

The New Year is here, and my perennial resolution is to get organized!  This year the first thing on my “to do” list was to develop a better system for keeping track of all of my child sponsorship materials.  Not only will getting these materials organized reduce the chaos in my home, but it should also help me keep another of my resolutions this year – to get more letters out to my sponsored children.

Given the items that I wanted to organize, I decided to use a binder system.  Alternatively, you could use an accordion file, hanging file folders, plastic drawer unit, manila envelopes, or even shoeboxes.

Supplies:  I used a large binder, sheet protectors, repositionable filing tabs, and plastic binder envelopes.  I already had most of these supplies, but you can click on the links to find products similar to what I used.

Sections:  My binder contains three sections (each section has different colored tabs).  The first section contains information on my sponsored children.  Each child has his/her own tab in this section.  The second section contains fun “extras” to include in my correspondence, and the third section contains mailing supplies, cards, and postcards.

Section 1: Sponsored Children

Behind each child’s tab, I have:

1.    Fact sheet about the child containing the child’s full name, sponsorship number, grade, birthday, mailing instructions, and picture.  I also include basic information about the child’s family and living situation.

2.    Chart of letters sent to the child noting the date the letter was sent and what topics were discussed.

3.    Log of items I have purchased for the child at the Online Shop (date, item, price).

4.    Empty page protector.  As I gather items to send my sponsored child in his/her next letter, I will put them here.

5.    Plastic envelope for letters received from my child.  I note the date received on the back and keep them in order by date, with the most recent on top.

Section 2:  Extras

I have a plastic envelope for each of the following:

1.    Stickers

2.    Photos (of my family, city, etc.)

3.    Articles (clipped from newspapers or magazines)

4.    Printables (dot-to-dots, mazes, coloring pages, etc. printed from the internet)

5.    Miscellaneous Extras 

Section 3:  Supplies

I have a plastic envelope for each of the following:

1.    Mailing Supplies (envelopes, stationary, international stamps, return address labels).

2.    Postcards (I keep a stock of these for when I am too busy to write a letter).

3.    Greeting cards (seasonal and blank cards).

I am sure that I will have to tweak this system as time goes on, but for now I feel so much better having all of these items neatly stored in one place!  

How do you keep track of your sponsorship materials?  Please share in the comments if you have found a system that works well.  

~submitted by Brooke