World Vision, headquartered in Federal Way, is launching the largest capital campaign in its 70-year history to help millions of people out of extreme poverty.

As people around the world are still reeling from thee COVID-19 pandemic, the eight-year campaign, Every Last One, is aiming to raise $1 billion to help 60 million people out of extreme poverty by 2023.

“For 70 years, wherever and whenever people were hurting, World Vision and our donors have come to their aid,” said Edgar Sandoval Sr., World Vision’s president and CEO. “The COVID-19 pandemic is our generation’s Vietnamese refugee crisis, Ethiopian famine, Rwandan genocide, or HIV/AIDs crisis. This is the most ambitious initiative that we’ve ever launched, but we are God’s people. This is God’s ministry. And this is our time.”

Amid this suffering, World Vision’s staff also are seeing child marriage and violence against women and girls on the rise, according to the organization.

The essential community development programs of Every Last One work together to respond to needs in areas where World Vision works with a focus on empowering women and girls.

The campaign invites Christian philanthropists to support seven key areas of development through multi-year programs in over 50 countries. These include giving 25 million people access to clean water — a cornerstone of World Vision’s poverty-fighting programs — and providing vital healthcare for mothers and their children, including nutrition support and treatment to two million pregnant women, newborns and children under five.

Every Last One also aims to offer emergency assistance to 16 million people when disasters and humanitarian crises strike, protect children from violence, and provide parents, teachers and Christian leaders with training and resources for children to discover their faith in Jesus.

The campaign also will provide educational opportunities such as literacy programs for children, targeting one million people with books and training.

It also aims to empower 4.4 million people with resilient livelihoods by providing recovery loans for families affected by COVID-19 and teaching better farming techniques to equip families to anticipate and overcome economic and weather-related shocks, ultimately improving livelihoods.

World Vision operates development programs in nearly 100 countries around the world. Monthly donors also empower communities through its popular child sponsorship model. The organization leverages gifts, such as large cash donations, corporate gifts-in-kind, and public grants to maximize impact.

Investments from thousands of philanthropists, corporations and foundations build on World Vision’s proven development expertise and its commitment to lasting change in the communities it serves. World Vision typically works in a country for an average of 12-18 years, developing long-term solutions and assisting communities to own their development outcomes by partnering with local leaders and community members.

World Vision sees providing access to clean water as a crucial weapon in the fight against poverty since it solves many of the factors that keep a family impoverished such as poor nutrition, health and the inability to earn an income.

The organization is the largest non-governmental provider of clean water in the developing world, reaching one new person every 10 seconds and three more schools every day. In February, World Vision announced the goal of bringing clean water to 20 million people worldwide was reached.

The new campaign will bring clean water to 25 million people, halfway towards World Vision’s ambitious goal of bringing clean water to everyone, everywhere they work by 2030, or 50 million people.

“With the support of our donors, we have seen meaningful progress in the fight against extreme poverty, but COVID-19 threatens to undo it, especially in the toughest places in our world,” Sandoval said. “Through our Every Last One campaign we’re envisioning lasting change, leaning into our proven, comprehensive solutions that bring life, hope, and a future to the world’s most vulnerable people, each precious in God’s sight.”

For more information, visit WorldVision.org/media-center.