World Vision — Child Sponsorship and Relief Work

One of the largest Christian relief and development organisations in the world: nearly a hundred countries, more than 34,000 staff, and work that runs from clean water and food aid to schooling, health care and disaster response.

Sponsorship costs $39 a month. Read the next part carefully, because it is the thing sponsors most often misunderstand: the money is pooled and spent on the child’s whole community — wells, clinics, schools — rather than handed to the child’s family. World Vision says this openly and explains why: giving to one household inside a poor village can split the village.

It was founded by Bob Pierce, who filed the papers in Los Angeles in 1950 and went on to found Samaritan’s Purse twenty years later. World Vision is explicitly Christian and says it serves people “irrespective of religion, race, ethnicity or gender”.

Do not expect your $39 to reach your sponsored child as money. World Vision pools sponsorship gifts and spends them on the whole community — water, clinics, schools — so the child benefits through the village, not through a payment. That is a reasonable model and they publish it plainly, but it is not what most people picture when they see a child’s photograph. If you want your giving tied to one family, this is the wrong organisation, and Compassion works the other way round.

Founded
Incorporated in Los Angeles on 22 September 1950. The organisation dates the beginning of the work to 1947
Founder
Bob Pierce, who later also founded Samaritan’s Purse
Led by
Andrew Morley, president and chief executive of World Vision International since 2019
Behind it
A partnership of national offices across six continents. The United States office is a 501(c)(3)
Based in
The United States office is in Federal Way, Washington. The partnership keeps no single world headquarters
Reach
Nearly 100 countries, with more than 34,000 staff
Languages
Each national office publishes in its own language
Cost
$39 a month to sponsor a child. The help itself costs the family nothing
You get
Child sponsorship, clean water, food aid, health care, education, disaster response and advocacy for children
Where the money goes
Sponsorship gifts are pooled and spent on the whole community, not paid to one child. The U.S. office states that 86% of 2025 operating expenses went to programmes, 10% to fundraising and 4% to management
Who they help
People of any faith. They state they help “irrespective of religion, race, ethnicity or gender”
How to join
worldvision.org/sponsor-a-child. Jobs and volunteering go through the national offices
Polish
There is no World Vision office in Poland. The nearest European offices are Germany and Romania, and their Ukraine response is run from Ukraine, Romania, Moldova and Georgia
Contact
P.O. Box 9716, Federal Way, WA 98063, USA

Worth knowing

Bob Pierce founded World Vision in 1950 and Samaritan’s Purse in 1970, so two of the largest Christian relief organisations on earth came from one man. Since 2020, 213 communities in 43 countries have finished the programme and no longer need it.

Open worldvision.org → All checked resources

Also checked

Others in this group.

Serve and give

Samaritan’s Purse

Disaster relief, field hospitals, and the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes.

Serve and give

Compassion International

Sponsor one named child, through a local church, in 29 countries.

World Vision does not sponsor or endorse Embassy of the Kingdom, and we are not affiliated with them. We list them because we checked them and would put them in a friend’s hands. If you lead a ministry and would like to be considered, or believe something here should be corrected, write to us — we read every message ourselves.

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