Sonlight Donates to Charity

From our inception, Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd. has donated a minimum of 10% of gross income to 501(c)(3) charitable organizations, and since 2005 we have been able to increase our charitable activity to more than 40%.

We count it a privilege to support international missions, church planting, literacy, education, and disaster relief efforts around the world, especially in the neediest parts of the planet, such as the "10/40 Window".

As people with a heart for the lost, we seek especially to support international mission agencies that focus on the five key unreached mega-groups: Tribals, Hindus, Unreligious (Chinese), Muslims, and Buddhists. (Think THUMB as an acronym.)

TRIBALS: The Seed Company, a member of the Wycliffe Bible Translators family of organizations, trains and supports indigenous translators as they make the Bible available in the heart languages of peoples around the world. Because the vast majority of language needs are among tribal groups, we use The Seed Company as a proxy for the Tribal peoples in THUMB. Missionaries live among the people, learn their language, and, as they give the people God’s Word, they share God’s love. Often entire tribes turn from darkness as God’s Good News transforms them.

HINDUS (& Muslims): Mission India— India encompasses 1.2 billion people. Mission India (MI) uses three methods to reach the nation of India. India has more unreached peoples than any other nation on Earth. (See the "Global Status of Evangelical Christianity" map published by the Southern Baptist International Mission Board: India is filled with so many unreached people groups, the entire subcontinent is painted almost completely red.)

Mission India resonates strongly with Sonlight due to the kinds of work it does:

• It sets up 12-month, five-night-a-week, 2-hour-a-night literacy courses aimed, primarily, at women. The courses are based on reading materials from the Bible. About 85% of the students graduate at a fifth grade level. Besides basic literacy, they learn life skills and acquire income-generating skills. About 60 percent of the women become heartfelt followers of Christ.
• It operates Children’s Bible Clubs throughout the country and a 10-day program during the holiday months in India. The 10-day program proclaims the gospel in a pleasant--we could say "fun" and "happy"--atmosphere to some four million children a year. Last year they served 4.3 million children in the 10-day program and 315,000 children in the After School Clubs. Close to 80% of all participants proclaim faith in Christ during the course of these programs.
• It trains church-planting evangelists in a rigorous, two-year program. After a couple of months of basic training, the aspiring evangelists are sent out to apply what they have learned. Over the course of two years, they spend 8 months in class, and 16 months "in the field." And over the course of the same two years, these evangelists will each plant an average of 10 churches!

UNRELIGIOUS CHINESE (plus Muslims and Buddhists): Far East Broadcasting— a radio ministry that uses indigenous speakers to beam the message of good hope to the peoples of Asia. We support them primarily for their outreach to the Unreligious Chinese and to the Buddhist peoples.

MUSLIMS: Frontiers— the only evangelical agency focused solely on reaching the Muslim world. Since 1982, Frontiers has remained focused on the ultimate objective of sharing the Lord Jesus Christ with Muslims. In keeping with the growing awareness of the importance of spontaneous Jesus movements, Frontiers passion is to glorify God by establishing communities of those who follow Jesus Christ that lead to movements among all Muslim peoples, through apostolic teams, in partnership with others who share this vision. (Learn more about their serving, loving, and respecting Muslims in the name of Jesus at www.frontiersonline.org.)

BUDDHISTS: (See Far East Broadcasting, above, under UNREACHED CHINESE.)

For more information on disadvantaged areas of the world and how you can help, see "10/40 Window: Do you need to be stirred to action?".

Please Note: Sonlight funds its charitable contributions, in part, through profits earned from the sale of its products and services. Your purchase of products and services from Sonlight does help us continue to support many great ministries and efforts, but does not constitute charitable giving. You will not receive tax documents from Sonlight related to these amounts, and you may not claim them on your taxes as charitable giving.