World Vision International

World Vision International is an Evangelical Christian humanitarian aid, development, and advocacy organization. It was founded in 1950 by Robert Pierce as a service organization to meet the emergency needs of missionaries. In 1975 development work was added to World Visions objectives. It is active in more than 90 countries with a total revenue including grants, product and foreign donations of $2.79 billion (2011).

History

Started in 1950 as World Vision Inc, the charity originally operated only in the United States but expanded to other countries in 1966. World Vision International was founded in 1977 by Walter Stanley Mooneyham the then president of World Vision. Today it is headquartered in Monrovia, California, in the same building as World Vision Inc. Mooneyham served as president of World Vision International until 1982 when he resigned after criticism within the International Board related to management style.

In 1967, the Mission Advanced Research and Communication Center (MARC) was founded by Ed Dayton as a Division of World Vision International. It became the organizational backbone of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, collected and published data about "unreached people" and also published the "Mission Handbook: North American Protestant Ministries Overseas".