Edgar Sandoval arrived in the United States with just $50 in his pocket, unable to speak English, carrying only his American passport and an unshakeable determination. Today, he leads World Vision, one of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations, serving 100 countries and reaching millions of the most vulnerable children globally.
From corporate boardrooms at Procter & Gamble—where he helped transform the meaning of “like a girl” from insult to compliment—to the remote villages of Kenya, Edgar’s journey reveals how divine calling can redirect a comfortable life toward extraordinary purpose. His leadership has revolutionized World Vision’s approach, flipping traditional sponsorship models and launching the organization’s most ambitious campaign yet: reaching 300 million people by 2030.
In this conversation, Edgar shares how childhood memories of poverty, corporate innovation lessons, and unwavering faith converge to create massive humanitarian impact.
As he puts it: “Sometimes to live our faith, we have to sacrifice and follow and be obedient to God.”
It’s Edgar Sandoval on The Business of Giving.
Edgar Sandoval Sr., President and CEO of World Vision
Denver: Welcome to The Business of Giving, Edgar.
Edgar: Thank you so much, Denver. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Denver: You came to the U.S. with just $50, and now you lead one of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations. Let’s start with that journey. Growing up in Central and South America, what’s one vivid memory of poverty that still shapes how you lead today?
Edgar: Yeah. Great. As you said, I grew up in Latin America. I was born in the States, but I moved there when I was only four years old. I came back when I was 18 with $50 in one pocket, my American passport in the other pocket, and I did not speak English. So other than that, things were just peachy.
But to your question, I have these vivid memories of walking down… as I walked to school, and in the corner near school was a small house that was a very humble house, and there were about six or seven very, very young kids and a young mom. And I just remember watching that sort of level of poverty and being just… my heart was breaking even as a young boy watching that and feeling somewhat incapable of helping.
I was seven, eight. And imagine that many decades later, here I am and being given an amazing blessing to try to help the most vulnerable kids around the world seek and experience life to the fullest. So it’s an honor to lead this organization of staff members who are fully committed to live their faith through action and through their calling to serve the vulnerable.
Denver: Yeah. That’s a vivid memory. It’s funny sometimes how our memories are not narratives, but they’re just pictures.
Edgar: Yes.
Denver: And nobody said anything. It’s just framed and it’s there, and you look at it, and it just speaks all the words it needs to speak. You have said your path was divinely orchestrated. Was there a moment when you felt unmistakably called for this role?
Edgar: Absolutely. Yes. The truth is I’ve wrestled with God. I was happy and content in corporate America. I wasn’t looking forward to taking a significant pay cut, moving my family to a place we’ve never lived before, and leaving everything that was familiar to us.
Oh, by the way, we have four children, and two of them have special needs, and we have a strong support system in the city where we were living at the time in Cincinnati, Ohio. So I didn’t want to leave that support system for our girls. But looking back, it’s been a tremendous blessing. I’m glad I did this. I’m glad I said yes.
But yes, there were several moments, because I kept asking for more evidence that I needed to take this role. I’ll never forget… I was on my couch early in the morning. I’m a man of faith, so I’m reading my Bible, and I gave God a quiz or a test, a wicked test. I said, “Lord, I’m not sure about this, but I’m going to open up my Bible randomly, and I’d like you to point me to a verse that is unequivocal direction. Whether, yes, World Vision or, no, World Vision.”
And so I opened my bible randomly, and I netted out in a place that there’s no scripture, it’s just a chapter introduction. It talks about what you’re about to read. Well, I have been talking to God in the morning, saying, “Lord, you blessed me with all this, a life of comfort. You know where I’ve come from. and look at me now: I’ve achieved the American dream. I’ve learned leadership skills. Surely I can do more in corporate, but I’ll follow what you want me to do.”
Well, I happen to have landed in a chapter introduction to the book of Nehemiah. And the book of Nehemiah talks about a servant of God who was in a position of comfort and had learned a bunch of leadership skills, and left it all to go rebuild the wall in Jerusalem. And then the last sentence says, “Sometimes to live our faith, we have to sacrifice and follow and be obedient to God.” And that was the moment I knew, “Okay, I’m ready. Let’s go.”
Denver: You cannot turn your back on that. You know what I mean? And I know you probably didn’t want to go in some ways because I think when you look at the epitome of the corporate world back then, Procter & Gamble was it. I mean, that was the dream. They are the ones who did everything right.
What are some of the lessons you took from Procter & Gamble that you’ve transferred over to the way you lead World Vision?
Edgar: Well, many lessons. The Procter & Gamble company, terrific company, made up of amazing people, who invest in staff. There’s too many to list, but I will say I learned the power of communication. The most profound one that I learned is the power of communication to change the world, and it was towards the tail end of my time there. I had the opportunity to direct at the time a brand-new global campaign for one of our feminine care brands.
And the campaign was called the Like a Girl campaign. Somebody asked me a question during the creative development process. They said to me, “Edgar, since when did doing something like a girl become an insult?” And as a father of three girls, I thought, “Wow, that’s pretty profound.” And long story short, we developed a new campaign and literally changed the world, changed the meaning of a phrase “like a girl” from an insult to a compliment.
Before the campaign launched, we had only 19% of people would say that doing something like a girl was a compliment. And a year after the campaign, that number went up to 79%.
Denver: Wow.
Edgar: The campaign got all kinds of accolades, more than we would’ve ever expected all the way. It got an Emmy. It was the most decorated campaign in the history of P & G at the time at the Cannes Lion Advertising Festival.
But it so imprinted in me the belief that, yeah, if you want to do good, communication can be a great tool. And one of the things that we did here at World Vision… that my team did at World Vision, we also flipped the script on one of our core iconic products, which is the sponsorship program. And you may be somewhat familiar with sponsorship.
Denver: Yeah, yeah.
Edgar: Where… Yeah. And the way that had been done for decades, is the potential sponsor families will pick from different picture folders. They’ll pick a boy or a girl that they want to sponsor somewhere around the world, in a village in Kenya or in a community in Honduras. And it’s a wonderful program, but we thought it needed some refreshment.
And so we started down the path of creating the conditions for creativity like I had learned at Procter. And my team came back, and they asked me a great question. They said, “Edgar, why don’t we put the power to choose the sponsor in the hands of the children?”
Denver: Brilliant.
Edgar: And so we flipped the script on that as well, and we called that Chosen
Denver: Yeah.
Edgar: And it is an amazing thing. The response rate from potential sponsors is incredible. With traditional, the original model, we were getting on a good day 5% to 7% of, let’s say, members of a church raising their hands to want to be sponsors for a child. With Chosen, that number has been up to 25%, so we’re able to help more kids around the world.
Denver: You know, some of the biggest changes are little changes. It’s just one thing. It’s not a whole big… it’s just a twist. Sometimes it’s just a word. I almost went to work for Procter & Gamble.
Edgar: Did you?
Denver: And I don’t think I would’ve had a great campaign. They were looking at me to promote Pringles in Syracuse, New York, so I… but I went to the nonprofit sector instead, and I’m glad I did. World Vision…
Edgar: You’re so right about it. If I may, you’re so right about that little thing that’s where the innovation and the creativity comes from. I like to say that big ideas are surprisingly obvious.
Denver: Yeah.
Edgar: And so we’re looking for things that are surprising, but also, wow, how come we didn’t see that before?
“We have reach. We are really a collection of thousands of small villages and small communities around the world who are themselves lifting themselves out of extreme poverty with some tools that we’re able to provide due to the generosity of our donors. And then we happen to work in over a hundred countries.”
Denver: Yeah. It really is true. And I do an exercise with a lot of people I work with to change one word; and you look at something, and you change one word, and you can absolutely dynamically change the entire meaning and open it. But we tend to just sort of take it as it’s given to us and assume somebody’s tested it and we should live with it. And that’s why we get stuck more often than not.
World Vision is 75 years old. How has that mission evolved to meet today’s challenges? And Edgar, if the founders of World Vision could see it today, what would most surprise them?
Edgar: Let me start with that last part of it. I think if Bob Pierce, who founded World Vision…
Denver: Right.
Edgar: …75 years ago during the Korean War, if he were to look at World Vision today, I think he’d be amazed at God’s faithfulness. He’d be amazed at the size. He probably never even expected it to be this big.
In fact, World Vision wasn’t big for the first 20, 30 years; it was a small organization. And so I think he would be particularly pleased and surprised at the reach because I don’t like to say “size,” because size makes us look like big and clunky.
Denver: Right.
Edgar: We have reach. We are really a collection of thousands of small villages and small communities around the world who are themselves lifting themselves out of extreme poverty with some tools that we’re able to provide due to the generosity of our donors. And then we happen to work in over a hundred countries. So I think he’d be pleasantly surprised about that. I think…
Denver: What happened… Edgar, let me ask you. What happened 40 or 50 years ago that…
Edgar: Well…
Denver: …a somewhat midsize organization all of a sudden elevated into a whole different stratosphere?
Edgar: Yeah. I think a number of things happened. But I would say our competencies and our capabilities grew. And the needs grew as well. And so, when opportunity meets capabilities, we started to expand and expand our… particularly our response and emergency response work. And once we started responding to every emergency, then we like to say we’re the first ones in and the last ones out.
We respond for an emergency, but we stay so that we can assist the community in developing sustainable solutions and lifting themselves completely out of their challenging circumstances. And so that was a big part of the change. And there were also significant periods of time where the world was paying attention… times like the Ethiopia famine and times like the HIV AIDS crisis, and we were there.
We did great work and people learned about it, and it helped us continue to grow. So that was the second part of your question. And please remind me of the first part of your question.
Denver: No, I mean, I think you’ve answered it in terms of how the mission has evolved.
Edgar: Oh, yeah.
Denver: And you…
Edgar: But what hasn’t changed…
Denver: Yeah.
Edgar: But what hasn’t changed, Denver, is God’s calling in our life. I mean, what’s been the constant is just like Bob… Bob prayed when he was starting World Vision. He prayed a really dangerous prayer. He said, “Lord, break my heart for the things that break your heart.”
And that’s what we pray every day. Help us see the world through the eyes of Jesus Christ, who’s who we follow. And it’s our faith that compels us to keep doing what we’re doing to get better every day, and that’s been a constant. And that is particularly critical and something we have to remind ourselves during times of crisis. Because when crisis hits, we have to remind ourselves: Why are we here? What’s the mission? And stay rooted in solid ground to keep going.
Denver: Talk a little bit more about that blend. I mean, you’re based, as you have said, in biblical principles, but you also combine that with tools like savings groups. And I’m curious as how that combination really exponentially transforms the lives of families and entire communities.
Edgar: Yeah. We do believe that it makes all the difference to be grounded in biblical principles and values and the combination of those biblical principles with capabilities and expertise that we built over 75 years through learnings of what works, what doesn’t work, really puts us in a position in which we’re in today to aspire to do things at massive reach.
And we are launching our new most ambitious campaign, capital campaign. We’re seeking to reach 300 million people with life, hope, and a future by the year 2030. And we do that based on the confidence of what we’ve learned, of what we know works. I’m going to give you one example, maybe two. But one example would be our livelihoods program called THRIVE.
THRIVE is a program that we have researched deeply. We’ve had third-party researchers come and look at it and give us their independent assessment of the program. We started it in Tanzania, and after a few years of research, the agency came back and said to us, “There’s something really amazing happening in communities in Tanzania where you’re working,” which are small holder farmer communities.
And this is an agency that’s been around for many years, a research agency, and they said, “We’ve never seen anything like this.” And incomes are multiplying, and they’re multiplying by a factor of 10. But not only do they have more money at the household level, the money is flowing down to the kids, to the family. They’re now able to have a nutritious meal every day. They’re able to go to school, to have clean clothes, et cetera.
And the leader of that agency, when he was giving me the report, at the very end he said, “Edgar, I think we found your secret sauce.” And I said, “Yes. Tell me what may that be?”
Denver: Yeah.
Edgar: And he said: “Your secret sauce is that biblical Empowered Worldview curriculum that you start before you even put a water well or start a new crop, planting seeds, et cetera… it’s the biblical Empowered Worldview.”
And that’s a biblically sound program that reminds people that they’re beautiful people created in the image and the beautiful image of God, that they have resources around them, and it really changes minds. And they go from a position of depending and waiting, to a position of taking agency and helping themselves.
Denver: Right.
Edgar: And they truly lift themselves out of extreme property on their own. The other thing that he told me is that something is changing in the fabric of the community. There are families helping families. And so I think that’s one example of the things that we’ve learned and how biblical values and technical competency come together to create massive impact.
The second one briefly will be our Water program, our WASH program. And I’m not sure if you’re… well, you did mention that someone before came…
Denver: Well, I know your Water, at 40 million or so. I know it inside out.
Edgar: Okay, perfect. So you know that every 10 seconds, a new person gets clean water through World Vision. We’re the largest non-governmental provider of clean water. Again, rooted in technical capabilities and in our biblical desire to help as many people as we can.
Denver: Yeah. Another thing, too, that I don’t think is mentioned enough in the corporate world or whatever, and I think World Vision has it, is organizational confidence. And people don’t talk about that enough.
But I know you’ve been thrown so many different things, and I know your team has probably sat around, said, “Oh, how are we going to get that done?” But after you do a couple, then the next one comes… you just know you’re going to figure it out. And that just breeds something that with the biblical principles coming together, that’s why success breeds success.
Edgar: Completely agree with that. And I’d like to say I learned from one of my mentors that the work of leaders, of strong leaders, is to absorb fear and exude hope. And that’s what we try to do every day.
Denver: Yeah. Yeah. Let’s talk a little bit more about the water. How does a community transform when water becomes available?
Edgar: Yeah, it’s like night and day. I mean, I’ll start with the before. There’s waterborne illnesses. There’s a thousand children dying every day from waterborne illnesses, dirty water. Not only that, usually the job of fetching the water, which is dirty, belongs to the girls, the women and the girls in the village.
And so instead of getting ready to go to school and learn and develop, these girls are getting ready to go fetch water that sometimes takes them… the journey is, on average, about six kilometers and maybe twice a day. They put themselves in danger, in physical danger and emotional danger. They come back. It’s an arduous job.
I’ve tried to carry some of the water that these little girls carry on their head, and it’s very hard work. Usually, I can’t finish the walk myself. And then they get back, and they bring dirty water home. It’s just a vicious cycle that really changes them to poverty, and instead of being changed, having a jar of 30 pounds on their heads, they should have a backpack on their back and be going to school every day.
Denver: Go to school, yeah.
Edgar: And then when water comes in, everything changes. Everything changes. They’re healthy. They have the ability to go to school and learn. Mom has more time. So if she’s not having to go and fetch the water twice a day, she has more time. Maybe she can start in a small business, be part of micro saving loan communities like the ones you mentioned earlier. And water is life, and it begins to change the entire community from the inside.
Denver: Is the world on the precipice of a water crisis with these climate change and these droughts and things? I mean, is this going to be… I mean, I sometimes have thought this could be the issue of our time in the next decade or two, but I don’t know enough about it. I just wonder what your perspective might be.
Edgar: Well, my perspective would be, Denver, that I think we can definitely solve the water crisis. We know how to do it. We’ve got 75 years of experience, what works, what doesn’t work. And today, we’re bringing clean water to one person every 10 seconds around the world. And that experience, those learnings from 75 years, they give us the confidence to go and declare some of the goals that we’re declaring that we’re after.
Denver: Yeah.
Edgar: They’re pretty ambitious– 300 million people, right? And that includes millions that we aspire will get clean water as well.
And one of the things that I’m most excited about is our “finish the job” aspiration. We aspire to finish the job. That means bringing clean water to everyone everywhere we work in a given country. We started in Rwanda. We ask ourselves, “Could we do this?” And then through the generosity of our donors, collaboration partners, our staff on the ground, we were able to finish the job.
Now, everyone everywhere we worked in the country of Rwanda… has access to clean water, and that was a million people that got clean water. And now we’re going next to Zambia and to Honduras and to Ghana. And yes, in a time where there’s skepticism about, and maybe even some sense of futility, does anything work? We’re here to say, those are not the facts that we’re aware of.
We are finishing the job of bringing clean water, and we invite you to be part of this movement that is a force for good for the world. And so join World Vision. Come visit our website, worldvision.org, and see how you can help. Every little bit helps, every little bit helps.
“How to stay resilient? Well, again, we’ve been around for 75 years. We have gone through peaks and valleys, different challenges, so we continue to trust in our God-given mission to help the poor and the oppressed. And that’s where I start. As a leader, that’s where I start. That’s where I start for myself, and that’s where I start with our staff. I remind myself that I need to be grounded on solid ground to weather the storms, right? And what we’re grounded on is in our faith.”
Denver: Now if you were a baseball relief pitcher, you would be the closer, I guess. You know what I mean? Let’s talk about USAID. Those recent reductions I think is costing World Vision some $170 million, and there have been layoffs.
What are you doing? What kind of partnerships, technology are you using to stay resilient and keep your impact as strong as it’s been?
Edgar: Yeah. So I’ll talk about both, how to stay resilient and then what we’re doing. How to stay resilient? Well, again, we’ve been around for 75 years. We have gone through peaks and valleys, different challenges, so we continue to trust in our God-given mission to help the poor and the oppressed.
And that’s where I start. As a leader, that’s where I start. That’s where I start for myself, and that’s where I start with our staff. I remind myself that I need to be grounded on solid ground to weather the storms, right? And what we’re grounded on is in our faith. That’s where we’re grounded. We’re grounded in our mission, and that’s our solid ground.
Asking ourselves, why are we doing this work, right? What’s the why? We were called for a reason, and that why is more relevant than ever. So I remind myself of that every day– to stay strong as a leader, and I remind staff because our staff, everyone has been called… The same calling that I have…
Denver: Yeah.
Edgar: …for this work, they have in this work. So I remind them so they can be ready for the work ahead.
In fact, we have a mantra at World Vision and it’s called” believe, belong, become.” Okay, three words. Believe in your God, on your God-given mission and calling for such a time as this. Believe in it. Two, belong to a community of like-minded people who want to change the world and do some real good in the face of many challenges.
And then become everything God wants for you personally, professionally; but also help others, the most vulnerable, become, and that become everything that God wants for them, which is fullness of life for the most vulnerable children. And that has motivated us, united us throughout COVID, throughout social division, and now through challenges of funding. So that’s how we stay resilient.
What are we doing to get more funds? We believe we’re in the business of, yes, fundraising, but even more important than that, we’re in the business of transformation– transforming communities, transforming donors, and transforming staff. And for funding… and the funds are really an outcome of a journey that we take with donors.
And we do that through a different number of ways. You mentioned the government and some of the challenges in recent foreign aid cuts. We continue to advocate. We’re continuing to advocate with decision makers about the positive impact of the funds. They’re called generally foreign aid. I don’t love that term. I checked the meaning of foreign, and it talks about strange and unfamiliar.
Denver: It goes back to changing one word sometimes.
Edgar: Exactly. So I like the term: humanitarian assistance.
Denver: Yeah.
Edgar: Humanitarian because I remind everyone that these are human beings, created in the image of God, just like you and I, with grandmothers, grandchildren, children, dreams and aspirations. And that humanizes what we’re trying to do. So that’s one thing.
The second thing is I talk a lot about a misconception, which is the belief that the foreign assistance budget is 15% to 20% of our U.S. government funding. And when I explain to people that it’s less than 1%, the vast majority, the overwhelming majority of Americans, they will all say, “Well, that makes a lot of sense. Let’s keep spending that amount.” So bringing some of the facts and some of the impacts of humanitarian assistance is really critical, particularly whether it works or it doesn’t work because there’s been a lot of questions recently.
And that’s one of the things that I think we need to do a better job of, is just reminding people and bringing the impact and the facts of the good that these funds are doing, this small 1%. And so the past is full of those examples. We can take, for instance, the HIV and AIDS pandemic, and now there’s 26 million people that are alive because of PEPFAR and all the funding that PEPFAR provided.
We can talk about the fact that we vaccinate two to three million children a year for polio and almost eradicating polio. Smallpox has been eradicated from the face of the world, and I can go on and on. And it’s not only good for the rest of the world and for those poor communities; some of this humanitarian assistance is also good for here, for America. It keeps illnesses away from our shores.
I’m just looking at a… there’s an Ebola breakout. I just got a notice in my phone in a country in Africa. There’s cholera in Sudan. And so being able to help contain those situations, it also helps here in America. And if we talk about, let’s say, humanitarian emergency food, that’s food that’s been grown by American farmers. We’ve estimated 60,000 jobs– from the farming, to the truckers, to the port workers. Oh, by the way, they love the fact that their commodities are going to help vulnerable people.
So it’s an important part of my work to… of our work collectively to talk about the good that assistance does and ultimately, for us as Christians, is the number one thing, I think, is at the top of the list of what God cares about, right? There’s over 2,000 verses in the Bible that speak about God’s heart for the poor and how living the Christian faith means helping the poor and the oppressed.
Denver: Yeah. And foreign aid, or more properly termed, humanitarian assistance, is a big part of the U.S. brand. And it took a hundred years to build that brand, and it’s a good brand. It’s our soft power around the world. It’s how we know what’s going on, it’s how we connect. And you just don’t want to give that away.
We’re talking a little bit about the crises and donor fatigue, which exists. World Vision has always had a great reputation of being an innovative organization. What are you doing in the digital space right now? What platforms are you doing? What new ideas do you have? What tools are there to enhance transparency, engagement, relationships, and also fundraising?
Edgar: Yeah. We’re doing quite a bit. And you are right. We have a strong track record of innovation over the years. In fact, I’ll talk about one of those, in the early 2000s, where we developed the Last Mile Mobile Solutions. And again, this was a tool that was designed precisely to your question, to the point of transparency and accountability and efficiency.
This was a tool that enabled us to make sure or strengthen our ability to deliver the assistance at the last mile, at the point of distribution, right? And I’ve been there. I’ve seen it in action. I was in Turkana, Kenya. It took me three plane rides. It took me two three-hour car rides to get there.
And there I am in the middle of this remote community in Turkana, Kenya, and we’re about to do a food distribution, yes, with American commodities, by the way. So I’m so proud when I walk into these distributions, and the American flag is on every one of those bags, right?
Denver: Yeah.
Edgar: And then every bag says, “From the American people.” And the recipients are just thanking me, saying, “Please thank Americans for the generosity.” But the point is there we are in the middle of nowhere and boom, somebody pulls out the computer and connects to the satellite… and we’re about to do a food distribution in the middle of Turkana, Kenya using LMMS to make sure that it’s accurate, transparent, and impactful. And that’s what we aspire to do in everything we do.
In terms of fundraising, well, we’re taking advantage of technology to particularly close the distance between beneficiaries and donors because that’s one of the other challenges we face. It’s as far as removed.
Denver: Yeah.
Edgar: And so technology can bring people together. We have one of the best apps now that allows donors to write to their sponsored children. The children can write back, send videos. And so we do it all with a purpose. So technology is a tool. It’s really a tool to enable a strategy and an objective. Technology in and of itself is not the solution. It’s how do… what problem are we trying to solve through technology?
And one of those challenges is a challenge of distance. We’re able to bring donors, through videos and AI and machine learning, images of the field where we work, and for them to see the real impact of the before and the after. So that’s how we’re leveraging technology, is mostly to create that sense of familiarity and proximity so they can see the impact and feel rewarded for their contribution.
Denver: Yeah, I was just thinking as you’re talking there, too, about changing one word again, the earlier part of our conversation, and thinking about that place in Kenya as the last mile. Just thinking about it as the first mile, that could be our first mile. And just the way you flip your Chosen program, you start there. It doesn’t reach there, it begins there and it just sort of, again, changes the way we think about things.
Your curiosity and desire to learn fueled your success. How are you mentoring the next generation of leaders within World Vision? And Edgar, what’s one piece of advice you consistently share with emerging leaders?
Edgar: Yeah. So I believe it is a critical responsibility of leaders to invest, investing in leaders, in the next generations. Identify them early and pour into them. In fact, we’re right now in the middle of launching what we call Shepherd Circle at World Vision, Shepherd Circles.
And this will be myself and my senior team… the eight of us leading leadership of development sessions with our vice presidents and associate vice presidents and senior directors, personally sharing, doing 90-minute sessions on learning from concepts, et cetera.
I pick one of the ones that is one of my favorites, to start the session with. And that is I tell leaders that a key capability that leaders need to fully develop and to fully contribute is to lead the thinking, to consistently lead the thinking. And that starts with understanding your business or the work that you’ve been given. Understanding it deeply and understanding it better than anybody else, right?
And then as you face challenges, as you face opportunities, it is the leader who leads the thinking of management. I remember having a meeting early on in my career, in corporate, and after the meeting with our manager, and my boss came out of that meeting really upset, and I thought, “Well, why are you so upset?” Well, he just gave us a list of what we need to go do. I felt like I was taking a pizza order. That’s not leadership, that’s not leading.
We should have gone there. We should have asked, “What’s your objective?” And then we should have had some ideas on how to get there. And he may not like them, but at least we’re leading his thinking. That was almost 30 years ago, and I’ll never forget it. So one of the pieces I give our leaders is to always think about: What are they doing to leave the place better than they found it and lead the thinking and how to get there?
The second piece of advice that I give leaders is to invest in themselves, is to take time to rest, to recharge, to refresh. Leadership is not easy. It’s challenging. We’re a lot better when we’re refreshed and when we invest in ourselves. To reset and to do, what I mentioned earlier, which is every day, absorb fear and exude hope.
“And so we’ve got the bold aspiration, Denver, to reach 300 million people. With life, and life means water, access to water, access to health services. With hope, and hope means Christian discipleship with our churches and partnerships in the church. Hope means child protection. And a future, and future is an education for everybody, especially boys and girls, and also livelihoods, economic empowerment so that families can make a good living, so their kids can thrive.”
Denver: Yeah. Yeah. Now, those are two great pieces of advice. And I think particularly leading the thinking because I think often, they like to have it open and everybody discusses things. People don’t want to be micromanaged, but they want direction and guidance. They want to know what the vision is and where you’re going.
And if this leader doesn’t provide that…
Edgar: That’s right.
Denver: …we’ll figure out how to get there. We’ll help, but you got to let us know what the destination is. And often that doesn’t occur. And that’s why people say, “I don’t know where we’re going. I don’t know what we’re doing.” You know what I mean? It changes every day. Everybody has their own idea.
Let’s go back, as we come to a close here, a little bit about this campaign that you’re about to launch or in the midst of launching, 300 million people, 2030: What are you looking to achieve and how can people become involved and become engaged to be part of it?
Edgar: Yeah. I’ll give you a little bit about the context, right? So what is the context in our humanitarian space? We have escalating and protracted conflicts. We have more unpredictable and more severe weather events, floods, hurricanes, et cetera. We have funding that before January 25, there were more needs than funding available. There was already a $30 billion gap, so it’s getting even harder.
So you would think this is the worst time to launch a campaign, but we see the world differently. We see the world through the eyes of God. And there’s no better time than now to do it because the needs are so huge. And also because we know, from 75 years, how to tackle these problems.
Denver: Yeah.
Edgar: And so we’ve got the bold aspiration, Denver, to reach 300 million people.
Denver: Wow.
Edgar: With life, and life means water, access to water, access to health services. With hope, and hope means Christian discipleship with our churches and partnerships in the church. Hope means child protection. And a future, and future is an education for everybody, especially boys and girls, and also livelihoods, economic empowerment so that families can make a good living, so their children can thrive.
And so that’s our aim. We are looking to do that in some of the hardest places to be a child. In fact, World Vision works in 40 of the 60 most fragile places in the world. And we have been shining the light of Christ, so to speak, in those places for many years, and we aspire to do it for many decades more.
What I would say is, particularly as we start getting near here the giving season, right? We know that Giving Tuesday, it’s a couple of months away. That’s a perfect opportunity to catalyze this movement of generosity. And so we’ve been blessed to receive a matching gift by a very generous donor of $2 million.
Denver: Oh, nice!
Edgar: So what better way to kick off this ambitious campaign than to have a lot of people of goodwill and caring and compassion… Americans join us, and help us get to that match so we can multiply and get to $4 million in total.
Denver: That is great. And if I just may add, Edgar, I think it’s just brilliant strategy because when everybody in the sector is hunkering down and retreating and playing it close to the vest, the marketplace is open. You know what I mean? So you get out there with a real bold statement in terms of what you’re going to want to do, and I think it is the best time in which to do it in order to be successful.
So, where do people go? Tell us more about the website and what people will find on it, and what’s your specific call to action to them.
Edgar: Yeah. Please go visit us at worldvision.org. You’ll find more details about the campaign but particularly, you’ll find different causes that may be more appealing to you, that your heart is broken by, whether it’s water or education, economic empowerment, child protection; whatever it is that’s your passion, you can help. And every little bit helps.
And that will be my call to action. Don’t feel like what you have to give is maybe not enough. Every little bit helps because what we do is we pool the funding, and then we do massive and major impact.
Denver: There you go. And it’s the middle B of Belong. At whatever level, just Belong! Fantastic.
Well, I want to thank you so much for being here today, Edgar, and for your inspirational and positive words. It was really a pleasure to have you on the program.
Edgar: Thank you, Denver. Thank you for having me.
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