World Vision

World Vision is an international partnership of national agencies that together seek to improve the lives of people around the world through development and relief programming across many sectors. The Christian agency's mission is guided by the Christian values of both its board members and staff. As such, World Vision is dedicated to working with the most vulnerable and poor communities around the world, but is careful to maintain that their programs and activities are aimed at poverty reduction and improving livelihoods, rather than religious conversion.

World Vision today is one of the largest developmental and relief agencies in the world, with programs in 98 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Oceania. In 2008, they raised $2.6 billion in cash and goods received, and employed over 40,000 staff members worldwide.

The World Vision partnership is made up of independent national offices, each of which has their own financial systems and boards of directors. The partnership is unified by a common mission statement and set of core values. The international board of directors is made up of representatives from the national societies.

The organization was founded in 1950 after missionary Dr. Robert Pierce visited China and South Korea, and was exposed to the needs of children there. World Vision's first international effort was a child sponsorship program aimed at assisting the orphans created by the Korean War. Child sponsorship remains one of World Vision's major forms of fundraising today, with approximately 3.6 million children sponsored annually.

World Vision is a major player in the world of international humanitarian relief. Dean Hirsch, former president of World Vision International, is now the organization's [Page 792]global ambassador. As president, he was one of the key members of the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response on the United Nations Inter-Agency Standing Committee. Richard E. Stearns is the current president and CEO of the U.S. office of World Vision.

The organization's global programs focus on three major areas; development, advocacy, and relief. International relief and rehabilitation programs (response to natural disasters and complex emergencies) make up just over 25 percent of the annual budget, or $644 million in 2008.

World Vision is one of the few international aid agencies with sufficient contingency funds to be able to allocate their own money toward disaster response. Each fiscal year, World Vision allocates approximately $6 million for urgent global disasters. In the case of a rapid-onset disaster, $100,000 can be made available immediately, with much larger sums able to be mobilized within hours of World Vision's decision to respond.