Hillsong’s Compassion Contract Details Revealed: What $1,000,000 Really Gets You
According to the explosive release of the 10,000 page Hillsong trove , Hillsong Church charged Compassion International $1,000,000 a year for the privilege of being at their events, signing a multi-year contract worth millions to promote the children’s charity.
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Like World Vision, Compassion is a “child-advocacy ministry pairing compassionate people with children living in extreme poverty to release the children from spiritual, economic, social, and physical poverty.” The idea is that people can ‘sponsor’ a child in a third-world country living in crushing poverty for around 30 or 40$ a month, helping fund them and their community and writing letters back and forth. These children will be actively involved in churches and will be ministered to and receive the gospel.
Rather than allowing Compassion to attend their events for free to do this good work, or even for a small nominal fee to cover any expenses, Compassion pays Hillsong a million dollars a year, along with their own costs, to attend these events and partner with them.
According to the agreement below, both ministries agreed to enter into a “strategic ministry alliance” to “serve the local church in reaching its redemptive purpose” and to “rescue children living in the developing world nations from extreme poverty, in Jesus’ name.”
They agree to “work together to see the maximum possible number of children sponsored in the future” (Editor’s Note: except for all the children that would have been sponsored with the $1M fee), with Hillsong committing to:
Bring support and exposure to Compassion’s Child Development Sponsorship Program (“CDSP”) by presenting Compassion at the following Hillsong events:
a) All Colour conferences globally.
b) All Hillsong conferences globally.
c) Annual Compassion Sunday at all Hillsong Church campuses globally.
d) Exposure and advertising on the Hillsong Channel. Hillsong will act as a consultant to Compassion on content production to maximize effectiveness. It is understood that film content provided by Compassion for broadcast on the Hillsong Channel shall be at Compassion’s expense and broadcast “airtime” of such material on the Hillsong Channel shall be at Hillsong’s expense. Any additional advertising mutually agreed upon through the Hillsong Channel shall be the sole obligation of Compassion.
e) Compassion promotion at Hillsong network events globally.
Hillsong also commits to appearing in promotional videos featuring their leadership and musician celebrities visiting locations where Compassion is on-site to “clearly show the benefits of Compassion’s Child Development Sponsorship Program in releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name.”
However, in addition to the million dollars a year already being paid, “costs for such trips, including videography, will be paid by Compassion.”
The agreement was signed in 2017 and intended to last four years, a million dollars a year, with the option to terminate the contract each year with 90 days written notice.
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I’m not trying to be a Hillsong apologist here, but have you calculated any sort of market rate or comparable value for the services provided?
What is Compassion’s customer acquisition cost? What is their marketing budget (or revenue, for that matter)?
Hosting Compassion booths at all EIGHTY of their easter services has to be worth *something*…
I’ve seen Compassion at several recent events for other Christian artists, and I thought about sponsoring a child. Having been disappointed with World Vision and their progression towards wokeness and the like, I decided to go home and “investigate” Compassion. It appears that the gospel is very very back-burner. I would just advise people to check them out thoroughly before signing up. Anyone else have info on them?