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

A line-by-line read of World Vision's FY2025 Form 990, showing how its government grants, its private contributions, and its expenses moved in a year when government funding fell sharply, and what an organization of any size can learn about relying on one funder.

## Key takeaways
- World Vision (US) reported $1,423.3M in total revenue for the year ending September 30, 2025, down from $1,583.7M the year before, and total expenses of $1,423.7M (FY2025 Form 990, Part I, lines 12 and 18).
- Government grants fell from $636.6M to $511.8M, a drop of $124.8M or about 20% (Part VIII, line 1e, FY2025 and FY2024 filings).
- Contributions other than government grants eased from about $931.7M to about $890.2M, a drop of about 4%, by our arithmetic from Part VIII, lines 1h and 1e.
- Revenue and expenses finished the year within $0.4M of each other, and net assets held at $432.3M against $428.8M a year earlier (Part I, lines 19 and 22).
- For a smaller organization, the lesson is to measure the share of revenue from its largest single funder, and to build a recurring private base before that funder changes course.

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](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full), against [the same line in the FY2024 filing](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202501259349300945/full)). 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](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full). 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](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full)). 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.

**$124.8M** — the drop in World Vision's government grants in FY2025, from $636.6M to $511.8M, while its other contributions eased about 4% ([World Vision FY2025 and FY2024 Form 990, Part VIII, line 1e (ProPublica)](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full))

## 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.

World Vision (US) public scorecard, fiscal year ending September 30, 2025 (FY2025 Form 990 via ProPublica, part and line cited in each row)

| Metric | Public value (FY2025) | What a donor file would confirm |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Total revenue | $1,423.3M (Part I, line 12) | How much of the private base gives every month |
| Government grants | $511.8M (Part VIII, line 1e) | Nothing donor-level, since these are public awards |
| All other contributions | $878.8M (Part VIII, line 1f) | How many sponsors started, stayed, and stopped during the year |
| Noncash contributions | $512.0M (Part VIII, line 1g) | Which donors and programs supplied goods rather than cash |
| Total expenses | $1,423.7M (Part I, line 18) | Nothing donor-level, since these are program and operating costs |
| Fundraising expense | $143.0M (Part IX, line 25, column D) | Which channels bring in sponsors who stay longest |
| Net assets, year-end | $432.3M (Part I, line 22) | Nothing donor-level, since reserves are an accounting total |
| Volunteers | 28,224, an estimate (Part I, line 6) | How many volunteers are also sponsors |

> **How to read this**
>
> Every public value above is a line on a filed IRS return. Every entry in the right column is a question, not a finding. This article reports the funding facts in the filing and the organization's own public statements about them. It takes no position on public policy. Where we compute a ratio or offer an interpretation, we label it as ours.

## 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](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full)). 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](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full)). Child sponsorship is a recurring gift. On its [sponsorship page](https://www.worldvision.org/sponsor-a-child/how-sponsorship-works), 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](https://www.worldvision.org/about-us/media-center/world-vision-celebrates-30-years-of-life-changing-giving-with-the-2025-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](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full)).

**$39** — the monthly child sponsorship gift World Vision describes on its sponsorship page, the recurring gift its filing names as a primary funding source ([World Vision, How sponsorship works](https://www.worldvision.org/sponsor-a-child/how-sponsorship-works))

## What does the revenue path show?

World Vision (US) total revenue and total expenses by fiscal year (years end September 30), in millions. FY2023 and FY2024 are trend context from the prior-year columns of the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.

|  | Revenue | Expenses |
| --- | --- | --- |
| FY2023 | $1510.1M | $1534.6M |
| FY2024 | $1583.7M | $1513.0M |
| FY2025 | $1423.3M | $1423.7M |

Total revenue fell about 10%, from $1,583.7M to $1,423.3M ([Part I, line 12, both columns](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full)). Expenses fell by $89.3M, from $1,513.0M to $1,423.7M ([Part I, line 18](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full)), so the year closed with expenses $0.4M above revenue ([Part I, line 19](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full)). In the prior year, FY2024, revenue had exceeded expenses by $70.7M ([Part I, line 19, prior-year column](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full)), 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](https://religionnews.com/2025/09/15/world-vision-ceo-discusses-humanitarian-work-in-post-usaid-world/), 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.

**About 10%** — the decline in World Vision's total revenue in FY2025 ($1,583.7M to $1,423.3M), against a public forecast of 10% to 11% by its CEO in September 2025 ([World Vision FY2025 Form 990, Part I, line 12](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full))

## 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.

World Vision (US) government grants (Part VIII, line 1e) and all other contributions (line 1h minus line 1e, our arithmetic), in millions. FY2024 is trend context from the FY2024 filing.

|  | Government grants | All other contributions |
| --- | --- | --- |
| FY2024 | $636.6M | $931.7M |
| FY2025 | $511.8M | $890.2M |

Government grants fell by $124.8M, about 20%. All other contributions fell by about $41.5M, about 4% (our arithmetic from [FY2025 Part VIII](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full) and [FY2024 Part VIII](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202501259349300945/full)). 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](https://religionnews.com/2025/09/15/world-vision-ceo-discusses-humanitarian-work-in-post-usaid-world/)), 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](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full)). 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](https://donorinsights.com/articles/map-international-donor-analysis) 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.

World Vision (US) contributions by Form 990 line, fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, with FY2024 as trend context (Part VIII of each filing)

| Part VIII line | FY2024 (trend context) | FY2025 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Federated campaigns (line 1a) | $1.6M | $1.4M |
| Fundraising events (line 1c) | $10.3M | $10.0M |
| Government grants (line 1e) | $636.6M | $511.8M |
| All other contributions (line 1f) | $919.9M | $878.8M |
| Total contributions (line 1h) | $1,568.3M | $1,402.0M |
| Of which noncash (line 1g) | $479.5M | $512.0M |

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.

> **This is a hypothesis, not a verdict**
>
> One reading of the two lines, and it is ours, is that recurring private giving through sponsorship held the private side steady while the government side fell. The filing is consistent with that reading, but it cannot confirm it. The private decline of about 4% could hide a stable sponsor base alongside weaker one-time giving, or the reverse. Only the donor file can separate the two.

**About 4%** — the decline in World Vision's contributions other than government grants in FY2025 (about $931.7M to about $890.2M, our arithmetic), against about 20% for government grants ([World Vision FY2025 and FY2024 Form 990, Part VIII, lines 1e and 1h](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full))

## Did net assets hold?

World Vision (US) net assets at fiscal year-end, in millions. FY2023 and FY2024 are trend context from the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.

|  | Net assets, year-end |
| --- | --- |
| FY2023 | $339.8M |
| FY2024 | $428.8M |
| FY2025 | $432.3M |

Net assets were $432.3M at September 30, 2025, against $428.8M a year earlier ([Part I, line 22](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full)). The small rise came from investment gains of $2.4M and other changes of $1.6M, which more than offset the $0.4M operating shortfall ([Part XI, lines 3, 5, and 9](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full)). Net assets without donor restrictions rose from $210.5M to $238.9M, and net assets with donor restrictions fell from $218.3M to $193.4M ([Part X, lines 27 and 28](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full)). The filing does not explain the shift between the two categories, so this article draws no conclusion from it.

## Where does the money go?

World Vision (US) functional expenses for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, in millions (total $1,423.7M)

| Segment | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Program services | 1,222.1 |
| Fundraising | 143 |
| Management and general | 58.7 |

Program services were $1,222.1M, about 86% of total expenses. Fundraising was $143.0M, about 10%, and management and general was $58.7M, about 4% ([Part IX, line 25, columns B, C, and D](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full)). Grants were the largest program cost: $950.0M to organizations and individuals outside the United States and $163.1M to organizations in the United States ([Part IX, lines 3 and 1](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full)).

The cost to raise a dollar again depends on the denominator. Divided by all contributions, $143.0M of fundraising expense is about 10 cents per dollar. Divided by contributions other than government grants, it is about 16 cents per dollar. We assume, and the filing does not show, that most fundraising effort goes to those non-government gifts rather than to government awards. Both are our calculations for FY2025. A board that tracks only the first figure will see its cost per dollar rise whenever government funding falls, even if private fundraising performed exactly as planned.

## What can the public filing not reveal?

Every figure above is a category total. The questions that decide how well a recurring base absorbs a shock are about individual sponsors and donors, and a Form 990 never reports those. Our guides to [sustainer retention](https://donorinsights.com/articles/sustainer-retention) and [donor concentration risk](https://donorinsights.com/articles/donor-concentration-risk) cover the two measures that matter most here.

Donor-level questions the Form 990 cannot answer, the measure each one needs, and why it matters

| The question | The measure it needs | Why it matters |
| --- | --- | --- |
| How many sponsors stayed through the year? | 12-month sponsor retention by start year | Recurring givers are the part of the base that does not move with public funding |
| How much sponsor loss is a failed card? | Failed-payment rate and recovery rate | A lapsed card is usually recoverable, and a cancellation usually is not |
| Did one-time donors respond to the news? | One-time gift count and value by month | A spike after public news may bring new donors who need a second invitation |
| How concentrated is private giving? | Share of private gifts from the top 1% of donors | The same concentration risk can exist inside the private base |
| Do catalog donors come back? | Second-gift rate of first-time catalog donors | A seasonal first gift is only valuable if some of those donors give again |

## How would you sort a sponsorship base?

The same way any organization should, with recurring givers placed at the center. Rank donors by recency, frequency, and value, the [RFM](https://donorinsights.com/articles/rfm-segmentation-nonprofits) method that orders a list by who gave most recently, how often, and how much. Then place each donor in a lifecycle stage that names the next action.

A four-stage lifecycle for an organization with a sponsorship or monthly giving program

| Stage | Who is in it | The next action |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Acquire | First-time donors, including seasonal catalog donors | A thank-you that names what the gift provided, and one invitation to give monthly |
| Convert | Donors who gave twice but do not give monthly | A sponsorship or monthly invitation tied to a specific child or community |
| Retain | Active sponsors and monthly donors | Regular updates, and a quick recovery process for failed card payments |
| Reactivate | Former sponsors and lapsed monthly donors | A personal note that names what their past giving did, with one invitation to resume |

## What can an organization do about its largest funder now?

The largest funder may be a government contract, one grantmaker, one company, or one family. The steps are the same. In order of expected return:

1. Compute the share of total revenue that comes from your largest single funder, and report it to your board every quarter.
2. Write down what the organization would do if that funder's support fell by a fifth, the size of World Vision's government decline in FY2025, and review the plan once a year.
3. Build a recurring private base before it is needed. A [monthly giving program](https://donorinsights.com/articles/monthly-giving-program) is the most predictable source of private revenue most organizations can grow.
4. Report the cost to raise a dollar on private contributions alone, so a drop in public or institutional funding does not distort the measure.
5. Tell donors plainly when a large funder changes course, as World Vision's CEO did in public, and give them a specific way to help.

The second step is easier with a worked example. Consider an illustrative organization, Harbor Lane Family Services, a fictional agency with $2.0M in annual revenue, of which $600,000, or 30%, comes from one county contract. A one-fifth cut to that contract removes $120,000. Replacing it with monthly donors giving $30 a month, or $360 a year each, would take about 334 donors. Writing that number down in advance tells the board how large a monthly giving program would need to be before the cut arrives, not after. The organization and its figures are illustrative.

The sector baseline explains why the third step takes time. In the Fundraising Effectiveness Project's [Q4 2025 report](https://publications.fepreports.org/archive/2025-q4/), which covers 15,102 organizations, overall donor retention was 43.3% in 2025, meaning fewer than half of the donors who gave in 2024 gave again in 2025. A recurring base grows only as fast as the organization keeps the donors it already has.

> Overall retention edged up from 43.1% to 43.3%, with repeat donor retention improving. — Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q4 2025 report (2025 data, 15,102 organizations)

## So what would you do next?

The public filing shows that World Vision's private contributions eased about 4% in a year when its government grants fell about 20%. It cannot show how many sponsors stayed, how many cards failed, or how many new donors arrived after the news. Those numbers live in each organization's own giving records. Donor Insights reads those records and returns a prioritized action file: sponsors and monthly donors with failed payments, first-time donors due a monthly invitation, and lapsed recurring donors worth a personal note. The [methodology](https://donorinsights.com/methodology) starts from your own giving records, and your team runs each outreach step in its own tools.

From there the work is steady and familiar. You measure your largest funder's share, grow the recurring base that does not depend on any one decision, and steward the donors who keep giving in a hard year. To see your recurring base measured on your own file, [start with your own data](https://donorinsights.com/get-started).

## FAQ

**Did World Vision's private donors give less in FY2025?**

Contributions other than government grants fell about 4%, from about $931.7M to about $890.2M, by our arithmetic from Part VIII, lines 1h and 1e. The filing reports categories, not donors, so it cannot show how many individual donors or sponsors gave more, less, or the same.

**Why did total revenue fall?**

Most of the decline came from government grants, which fell $124.8M, from $636.6M to $511.8M (Part VIII, line 1e). In a September 2025 interview with Religion News Service, CEO Edgar Sandoval forecast a 10% to 11% reduction in revenue for the year. The filed decline was about 10%.

**Did World Vision run a deficit?**

Expenses exceeded revenue by $0.4M in FY2025, on revenue of $1,423.3M (Part I, line 19). Net assets still rose slightly, from $428.8M to $432.3M, because investment gains and other changes more than offset the shortfall (Part XI).

**Which fiscal year does this article cover?**

The fiscal year from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025, called FY2025 here. The IRS files that year on the version of Form 990 labeled 2024, because the year began in 2024. Prior years appear only as labeled trend context.

**Is this analysis based on World Vision's private data?**

No. Every financial figure comes from World Vision's public Form 990 as published by ProPublica, cited by part and line. Other facts come from the organization's own pages and a published interview. No donor-level data is used.

## Sources
- [World Vision, Inc. (EIN 95-1922279), IRS Form 990 for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025 (FY2025, filed on the 2024 form), full filing via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202611209349301676/full)
- [World Vision, IRS Form 990 for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024 (FY2024, trend context), full filing via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/951922279/202501259349300945/full)
- [André, F. (2025). World Vision relied on USAID for one-third of funding. Now, it adapts to cuts. Religion News Service, September 15, 2025](https://religionnews.com/2025/09/15/world-vision-ceo-discusses-humanitarian-work-in-post-usaid-world/)
- [World Vision. How sponsorship works (organization-reported sponsorship amount, accessed 2026)](https://www.worldvision.org/sponsor-a-child/how-sponsorship-works)
- [World Vision (2025). World Vision celebrates 30 years of life-changing giving with the 2025 Christmas gift catalog. Press release, September 30, 2025](https://www.worldvision.org/about-us/media-center/world-vision-celebrates-30-years-of-life-changing-giving-with-the-2025-christmas-gift-catalog)
- [Fundraising Effectiveness Project (2026). Q4 2025 report. 2025 data, 15,102 organizations](https://publications.fepreports.org/archive/2025-q4/)

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Source: DonorInsights.com — https://donorinsights.com/articles/world-vision-donor-analysis