Aligning Our Giving with What Children Need Most

Last week I read the new Barna research commissioned by Faith to Action, and one finding stayed with me: 90% of U.S. Christians agree that children thrive best in families. At the same time, more than one in four Christians, 28%, still report financially supporting an orphanage, children’s home, or residential care program, representing an estimated $4.5 billion in annual giving.

That matters, even for those of us who have already made the shift.

At Helping Children Worldwide, we have worked hard to align our ministry, our partnerships, and our giving with what is best for children. We believe children belong in families, and we have committed ourselves to supporting family strengthening, reintegration, prevention, and community-based care. For many in our HCW community, that conviction is already settled. But the Barna findings remind us that this is not yet the norm in the broader U.S. church.

Many Christians and churches across the United States are still giving to institutional models of care, even while saying they believe families are best for children. That does not mean they do not care. In most cases, it means the opposite. Barna found that 81% of those who support residential care say it is the most important cause they support, and the most common motivation is the emotional reward of helping children. But in child welfare, good intentions are not always enough. Compassion matters, but compassion also needs wisdom.

For many years, those of us in care reform assumed the biggest challenge was awareness. We believed that once people understood that many children are separated from family not because they have no one, but because their families are facing poverty, crisis, or lack of support, giving would naturally begin to change. There has been progress in understanding: 72% of U.S. Christians now say they are aware that poverty is a major driver of orphanage placement, and Barna reports that understanding of poverty as the primary driver increased by 26 percentage points since 2020. And yet, the same study shows how incomplete that understanding still is. Only 23% correctly identify poverty as the most common reason children are placed in residential care. Many still assume the main reasons are abuse, neglect, or parental death.​

What that tells us is important. This is not only an awareness problem. It is also a habit problem. A story problem. Institutional care remains familiar and visible. It offers simple ways to help and easy ways to measure generosity. A building can be visited. A bed can be funded. A child can be sponsored. Donors can feel connected right away. That pattern is reinforced by the church itself: 40% of donors say they first learned about the orphanage they support through their church, and 68% of mission trips to orphanages are organized by churches.

Family strengthening work is different. It is often slower, quieter, and harder to communicate. It may look like a trained social worker helping a grandmother keep children in school. It may look like family tracing, kinship care, trauma-informed case management, crisis support, or helping a family stabilize before separation happens. It is deeply meaningful work, but it does not always fit the models many churches and donors have been taught to recognize. That is why this moment matters.

For those of us who have already made this shift, the Barna research is a reminder that our work is not only to fund differently. It is also to help others see differently. Even though attitudes are moving, behavior has not changed nearly as fast. Barna found that while positive views of orphanages have declined and belief in their essential role has dropped, engagement with residential care has remained largely unchanged. In fact, compared with 2020, 9% more Christians now report financially supporting residential care programs like orphanages and children’s homes.

The church still plays a major role here. For many people, the church is the front door into missions, child sponsorship, and global engagement. Churches help shape the stories people hear, the responses they trust, and the actions that feel faithful. So this is not only about nonprofit strategy. It is also about discipleship. About teaching. About helping people understand that supporting families, strengthening communities, and funding skilled local care is not a lesser response. It is indeed, the better one. This is not about shame. It is about clarity, courage, and continued witness.

If we truly believe children belong in families, then we cannot stop at changing our own budgets. We also need to help make family-based care more visible to others. We need to tell clearer stories about reunification, prevention, kinship care, and the daily work that helps children remain where they belong. We need to keep building better invitations for churches and donors who want to help, but may not yet know how.
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The Barna research suggests that many hearts may already be moving in the right direction. But hearts alone are not enough. Budgets, habits, and church practices must move too. Because children do not just need our compassion. They need our courage to keep leading the change.
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Author:
Laura Horvath, Ed.

Global Child Welfare & Care Reform Consultant