Leadership Series: Is Change an Uphill Battle?

Nonprofits’ diversification of revenue and resource-gathering streams has become vital. For many years, World Vision relied too heavily on one source of revenue. The World Vision Child child-sponsorship program annually has raised hundreds of millions of dollars throughout the world because it closely followed the six reasons Christian researcher George Barna believes people give to charities:

• impact of the organization’s work;

• efficiency with which the organization uses donated funds;

• presence of a compelling cause;

• donor’s relationship with the organization;

• personal benefit the donor receives by giving; and

• urgency of the need.

World Vision’s marketing efforts have capitalized on all of these motivators and presented current and prospective child sponsors with a real, tangible child who personifies poverty in the developing world. One cannot grasp the enormity of 3 billion people who live on less than $2 a day, but one can understand the needs of a 7-year-old girl named Deysi in El Salvador or 5-year-old Joseph in Chad.