World Vision, Inc., U.S.

Summary

Founded in 1950, World Vision (WV) is a Christian humanitarian organization serving the world’s poorest children and families in nearly 100 countries. It exists to promote obedience to Christ’s teachings by offering people opportunities to help their neighbors. The organization ministers through community-based development and focuses on meeting the needs of children, providing emergency relief, promoting justice, serving the Christian Church, increasing public awareness and understanding of global poverty, and serving as a witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Contact Information: [ Back to top ]

Organization Details [ Back to top ]

Purpose [ Back to top ]

World Vision Inc., U.S. (WV) is a humanitarian organization that raises funds with other WV organizations. These funds are then channeled to the needy and hurting peoples of the world through World Vision International, a related organization. World Vision was founded in 1950 by Dr. Bob Pierce to help children orphaned in the Korean War and has become an organization that assists entire communities with water programs, health care education, agricultural and economic development, and strategic Christian leadership activities.

World Vision, Inc., U.S. exists to promote obedience to Christ's teachings by offering people opportunities to help their neighbors. WV ministers through community-based development and focuses on meeting the needs of children, providing emergency relief, promoting justice, serving the Christian Church, increasing public awareness and understanding of global poverty, and serving as a witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This organization is a nonprofit. Contributions to it are fully tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Mission Statement [ Back to top ]

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.

Program Accomplishments [ Back to top ]

Fiscal Year of 2003:

• 231,836 mothers were trained in better health and nutrition practices for themselves and their children.
• 226,315 people received small loans (average of $315) to start or expand small businesses that support their families.
• 450,987 farmers received seed packets this year to help grow nutritious and reliable food supplies for their families.
• More than 733,000 children around the world were sponsored by donors in the United States.
• $1.9 million in relief supplies sit ready in World Vision’s global warehouses to send at a moment’s notice to disaster victims.
• 9.7 million victims of disasters or humanitarian crises in 50 countries were assisted.
• $110 million in aid was awarded to a consortium led by World Vision to alleviate hunger for 6 million people in southern Africa.
• 1 million people gained new access to clean water. World Vision’s clean water initiative was expanded from Ghana into Mali and Niger. Over the next 6 years, it will drill 825 deep wells and bring the gift of health and clean water to 500,000 people.
• World Vision introduced HopeChild sponsorship in countries hard-hit by HIV/AIDS. In addition to community interventions of clean water, food, health care, education, and micro-enterprise development, this new sponsorship helps care for orphans and vulnerable children and teaches biblical principles to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.
• The Vision Youth program in the United States was recognized with a million-dollar grant from the U.S. government. This grant supports local Youth Outreach Workers through neighborhood churches to pair at-risk children and youth with educational mentors and help troubled teens find positive direction. Vision Youth volunteers invested 132,192 hours serving 22,727 children and youth this year.

• Child sponsorship of 3,300,000
• Served 100 million people, including 1.6 million in the U.S.
• Responded to 85 humanitarian emergencies assisting an estimated 7 million disaster survivors
• Distributed 147,000 metric tons of food worth $148 million
• Through partnering, served nearly 118,000 people across West Africa by providing clean water
• Equipped more than 50,000 caregivers supplying care to AIDS victims in Africa
• Provided 194 wells for 117,000 people in West Africa
• In Haiti, served 3,400 children through school renovations, schoolbook distributions and training sessions for teachers and principles
• Delivered $82 million in private donations and U.S. government grants for disaster relief
• Utilized $285 million to benefit 640,000 people in tsunami-affected South Asia since recovery began in 2004
• Continued humanitarian efforts for Darfur’s children and adults throughout the year, delivering food to more than 244,000 people in May alone
• Responded to floods in Texas and Oklahoma, and tornadoes in Kansas, Georgia and Alabama
• Trained 104 midwives in Afghanistan and supported the neonatal unit of Heart Maternity Hospital, the only one serving a population of 1.7 million
• Provided opportunities for 300 groups to assemble 70,000 caregiver kits
• Micro enterprise loans of 355 million to 530,000 entrepreneurs to create more than 850,000jobs with a loan repayment rate of 97 percent
• Counts 12,000 partner churches in the U.S.; received the support of 3.1 million donors and partners in the U.S.
• Worked in nearly 100 countries with 31,000 staff members
• Operated 1,399 sustainable development projects
• Co-authored the Child Soldier Act
• Worked to bring the conflict in northern Uganda to the U.S. national agenda
• Hosted a Youth Empowerment Summit in Washington D.C.
• Assisted 394,000 children who are victims of HIV/AIDS through the HopeChild Sponsorship
• Provided more than 400,000 youth with age-appropriate HIV-prevention based on biblical values
• Equipped nearly 20,000 people, including 3,200 faith leaders from 2,400 churches across Africa

Statement of Faith [ Back to top ]

World Vision, Inc., U.S. uses the following to express its Statement of Faith:

• We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.
• We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
• We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful man, regeneration of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
• We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
• We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
• We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.

History [ Back to top ]

Dr. Bob Pierce began World Vision to help children orphaned in the Korean War.

To provide long-term, ongoing care for children in crisis, World Vision developed its first child sponsorship program in Korea in 1953. As children began to flourish through sponsorship in Korea, the program expanded into other Asian countries and eventually into Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Today, monthly contributions from sponsors enable World Vision to provide impoverished children and their communities with access to clean water, nutritious food, education, health care and economic opportunities.

The 1960s
World Vision began its global relief efforts in the 1960s, delivering food, clothing and medical supplies to people suffering from disaster. World Vision began soliciting clothing and other surplus products from corporations to help meet the immediate needs of children and families in emergency situations. These gift-in-kind donations now account for roughly 30 percent of World Vision’s income.

The 1970s
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, donations continued to grow, and World Vision was able to reach thousands more children. At this time, World Vision realized the growing need to work with entire communities to help children and families break free from poverty. World Vision began incorporating vocational and agricultural training for families into its sponsorship efforts, and parents began learning to farm and earn money through small enterprises. These efforts to affect self-sustainable change evolved into World Vision’s current community development work. Long-term development has proven central to bringing lasting hope. After meeting immediate survival needs, World Vision works with communities to help them find lasting solutions and move toward self-reliance.

The 1980s
A major benchmark of our growth occurred in the early 1980s when famine struck Ethiopia. The media coverage of the famine created unprecedented awareness of human need, and people throughout the world offered financial resources to the relief efforts. World Vision provided millions of dollars worth of food and medical assistance, saving thousands of lives from the slow, agonizing death of starvation. Once the immediate crisis subsided, World Vision began long-term efforts to help Ethiopians rebuild their lives. Today, the region that was once parched and full of death thrives with nutritious crops, fresh water and hope for the future. Also in the 1980s, World Vision began drilling wells in communities, causing infant mortality rates to drop. World Vision often uses clean water as an entry point into communities, following with other activities that create change. Once the pump is installed, World Vision trains community volunteers to become health promoters, who, in turn, teach their neighbors how to use fresh water for better health. World Vision offers classes to villagers in health care, gardening, irrigation and income generation. Villages evolve from poverty-stricken, illness-plagued communities to thriving, self-supporting, healthy ones.

The 1990s
In 1990, World Vision began addressing the urgent needs of children in Uganda who had been orphaned by AIDS. Recognizing the magnitude of the AIDS pandemic and its serious impact on decades of development efforts, World Vision began expanding its AIDS programming into other hard-hit African countries. In Romania, World Vision worked with the long-neglected orphan population and provided training to health care workers. In Somalia, World Vision joined United Nations peacekeepers to help millions affected by the civil war. World Vision launched the 30 Hour Famine early in the decade to help young people experience the effects of poverty firsthand and raise funds to make a difference for hungry children around the world. In the U.S. alone, 485,000 youth now raise more than $11 million every year through the Famine. World Vision also began actively promoting justice for children and the poor in the early 1990s, calling for an international ban on land mines, an end to child exploitation and equal opportunities for female children.

The 21st Century
In the year 2000, World Vision launched the Hope Initiative to call people to respond to what had become the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time – HIV and AIDS. By 2006, nearly 399,000 orphans and vulnerable children had been sponsored in AIDS-affected communities. World Vision is helping turn the tide against HIV and AIDS worldwide by caring for orphans and vulnerable children, preventing the spread of HIV with education based on biblical principles, and advocating for effective programs that transform communities and save lives. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, World Vision assisted New Yorkers not covered by other aid programs. Later, it established emergency food programs for more than one million Afghanis. In 2002, World Vision, along with other NGO partners, received one of the largest emergency relief grants in history to provide food and related assistance to tens of millions of Africans affected by the decade’s worst famine in Southern Africa. World Vision has continued to be a voice for the poor by helping to stop the flow of conflict diamonds fueling civil wars in Africa, deterring sex tourists who prey on innocent children abroad and calling for an end to the use of child soldiers in northern Uganda. When massive tsunamis devastated South Asia in December 2004, World Vision’s 3,700 local staff began responding immediately with life-saving aid. Generous donor gifts are enabling World Vision to help families rebuild their lives over the long-term with new homes, schools, clean water, health care and economic opportunities.

Ministry Needs [ Back to top ]

World Vision is seeking help with child sponsorship, cash donations, volunteers, corporate/matching gifts, gifts-in-kind, gift planning/donation of stock. Please see World Vision’s website for daily, urgent prayer requests of the ministry.

Research Analysis

Transparency Grade [ Back to top ]

MinistryWatch.com 5 Star Financial Efficiency Ratings [ Back to top ]

Ranking Category	Rating	Overall Rank	Relief and Development Sector
Overall Efficiency Rating		113 of 352	33 of 54
Fund Acquisition Decision		240 of 352	42 of 54
Resource Allocation Decision		102 of 352	34 of 54
Asset Utilization Decision		70 of 352	18 of 54