World Vision's Government Grants Fell $124.8M in One Year. How Did Its Other Lines Move?

World Vision's latest filing shows what happens when an organization's largest single source of money shrinks quickly, and why a broad base of recurring private donors matters when it does. For the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, World Vision (US) reported government grants of $511.8M, down from $636.6M the year before (FY2025 Form 990, Part VIII, line 1e, against the same line in the FY2024 filing). That is a drop of $124.8M, or about 20%. Over the same year, contributions from every other source eased by about 4%, from about $931.7M to about $890.2M, by our arithmetic from Part VIII, lines 1h and 1e. Total revenue of $1,423.3M and total expenses of $1,423.7M finished within $0.4M of each other (Part I, lines 12, 18, and 19). This article reads the filing line by line and turns the pattern into steps an organization of any size can take about its own largest funder.

What does the FY2025 filing show at a glance?

The table below collects the figures a careful reader would pull from the FY2025 Form 990 before interpreting any of them. The middle column is what the filing reports, with its part and line. The right column names the question each figure raises that only the organization's own donor records could answer.

What is World Vision doing well?

World Vision describes itself in its filing as "a Christian humanitarian organization serving children and families globally" (Part I, line 1). Its largest program, international work on clean water, food, health care, education, and child protection, reported $987.7M in expenses, and the filing names how that work is paid for: "one of the organization's primary funding sources for this work is child sponsorship, through which the organization partners with long-term individual child sponsors" (Part III, line 4a). Child sponsorship is a recurring gift. On its sponsorship page, World Vision describes it as "more than just a $39 monthly donation" and says the gift funds community programs that reach the sponsored child's neighbors as well.

The organization also runs a well-known seasonal offer. In September 2025 it announced 30 years of its Christmas gift catalog. The release says donors can choose artisan-made gifts when they donate to the World Vision Fund, which "supports all the ways World Vision works with children and families," and can also give specific essentials such as clean water and health care. A catalog of this kind gives a first-time donor a concrete item to choose, which is an easier first step than an open request for money. The filing also estimates 28,224 volunteers alongside 1,034 employees (Part I, lines 5 and 6).

What does the revenue path show?

Total revenue fell about 10%, from $1,583.7M to $1,423.3M (Part I, line 12, both columns). Expenses fell by $89.3M, from $1,513.0M to $1,423.7M (Part I, line 18), so the year closed with expenses $0.4M above revenue (Part I, line 19). In the prior year, FY2024, revenue had exceeded expenses by $70.7M (Part I, line 19, prior-year column), as trend context. The fiscal year ends on September 30 in each year shown, so there is no short or stub year in the comparison.

The organization forecast the decline in public. In a September 2025 interview with Religion News Service, CEO Edgar Sandoval said, "We're going to be seeing a 10% to 11% reduction in revenue this year." The interview was published on September 15, 2025, two weeks before World Vision's fiscal year ended, so we read "this year" as FY2025. On that reading, which is ours, the filed revenue decline of about 10% landed at the low end of the forecast. In the same interview, Sandoval described the effect as limited "because we have a portfolio of funding resources where the U.S. government is not the majority," and he named private donors, corporations, foundations, churches, and sponsors among the other sources.

How did government grants and private gifts move?

Form 990 reports government grants on their own line, 1e, inside total contributions on line 1h. Subtracting one from the other gives every other contribution: gifts from individuals, sponsors, companies, congregations, and grantmakers, plus donated goods. The chart shows both parts across the last two filings.

Government grants fell by $124.8M, about 20%. All other contributions fell by about $41.5M, about 4% (our arithmetic from FY2025 Part VIII and FY2024 Part VIII). By our calculation, government grants were about 40% of total revenue in FY2024 and about 36% in FY2025. Religion News Service described World Vision as having "counted on the U.S. government for one-third of its funding" (RNS, September 2025), which is close to the filed share. The private side moved far less than the government side, which is the pattern a broad recurring base is meant to produce.

Two details keep the private figure honest. First, noncash contributions, which are donated goods, rose from $479.5M to $512.0M (Part VIII, line 1g). The filing reports noncash gifts across all contribution lines, so a reader cannot separate private cash from private goods using the filing alone. Our deep dive on MAP International explains why cash and in-kind gifts should be read as separate lines. Second, the filing reports categories, not donors, so it cannot show how many sponsors began or ended their sponsorship during the year.

Each line in the table has a specific meaning on the form. Line 1a covers gifts that arrive through workplace giving campaigns. Line 1c covers the gift portion of event tickets and sponsorships. Line 1e covers grants from governments. Line 1f is the catch-all line for gifts from individuals, companies, congregations, and grantmakers, which is where recurring sponsorship gifts from individuals would normally be reported, although the filing does not show sponsorship as its own figure. Line 1g is not a separate source. It reports how much of the total arrived as goods rather than cash, across all the lines above it.