World Vision

Question 1:   What are the sources of World Vision's rapid growth and program effectiveness? How and why did these change over the past 50 years? As it entered the 21st Century, what were World Vision's greatest assets and strengths? Its biggest limitations and liabilities?
World Vision’s rapid growth and program effectiveness are driven by several factors.   Firstly the organizations fundraising program was second to none.   It was able to harness funding from private sources as well as government and multilateral agencies.   In 2002 for instance the organization was able to raise over $732 million in cash and nearly $300 million in commodities with the United States as it major contributor.   The formation of the World Vision Partnership was a major force that aided in the growth and program effectiveness of the organization.   The partnership allowed for a global entity to be formed with a stronger presence and reach.   Although WV underwent a variety of leadership with varying leadership styles, there was a common vision of achieving success.   Pierce for example was able to use his entrepreneurial attitude of “don’t fail to do something just because you can’t do everything,” to propel WV’s innovative child sponsorship program to extend extensively over Asia.   With the revitalizing of the World Vision U.S. marketing function, with the U.S. being the largest funds contributor, there was exponential growth realized.   The traditional Direct Response Marketing Department was replaced with integrated product and channel marketing teams that worked with new communication and creative teams to focus on the cost of donor acquisition, cost and methods of donor retention and long-term donor value.   With an emphasis placed on brand building and new channels of recruiting and retaining donors under the leadership of Tandon and Stearns there was significant double digit growth.
Over the past 50 years however there were several changes in World Vision that resulted in shifts in...