World Vision — Moving Sponsorship Along the Development Continuum

World Vision International is the world’s largest child sponsorship (CS) organization, with close to half of all sponsored children from among the major international sponsorship agencies. As of December 2012, 4.2 million children were registered for CS in World Vision pro-grammes globally (World Vision International, 2013). This direct support for children has been an integral part of World Vision since its founding by Bob Pierce in 1950 and the first World Vision CS pro-gramme for orphans in 1953. Since then, the success of CS fundraising has enabled dynamic organizational growth, diversification and long-term commitment to disadvantaged children and their communities. Although there has been change in the way sponsors are linked to children, the most significant changes in World Vision’s CS activities have occurred in the area of programmatic strategy where organizational learning has led to new approaches to development, community engagement and advocacy. A review of these learnings and changes within World Vision illustrates how sponsorship practice can be adapted to support strong development outcomes with higher levels of sustained impact on children, their families and broader communities.