World Vision Shifts the Focus of its Development Efforts From Silos to Support and Gets Everyone Working Together to Engage Donors in Saving the World’s Children

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

Not that Tandon is shy about pushing the proverbial envelope, especially when it comes to the way World Vision U.S. relates to donors.

Founded on a solid history of sustainer giving — the organization has nearly 800,000 monthly donors in the United States — World Vision U.S. certainly wasn’t a stranger to DRM when Tandon came to it seven years ago from his job with CitiBank. But the self-proclaimed “old banker” saw an immediate need for change. The programs were working, but the approach, the attitude needed a kick in the pants. The organization, he says, was singularly focused on its mission. How can that be a bad thing? It’s almost counterintuitive to suggest otherwise. But he does. Sort of.