As hurricane season approaches, World Vision receives $5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to strengthen church-based disaster response across the United States

SEATTLE (May 20, 2026) — Global Christian humanitarian organization World Vision has received a $5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its initiative, Hope After the Storm: Capacity Building for Faith-Based Disaster Relief Organizations. 

With the grant, World Vision will expand and strengthen its U.S. disaster response by equipping local churches to serve as trusted, pre-positioned responders in their communities. The initiative will focus on empowering 10 churches across disaster-prone regions to operate as distribution hubs, enabling faster delivery of essential supplies such as clean water, food, hygiene kits, and generators when disasters strike. 

“This support comes at a pivotal moment as communities across the United States face increasingly frequent and severe disasters,” said Edgar Sandoval Sr., president and CEO of World Vision U.S. ” We love to partner with local churches, equipping them so they can serve and strengthen families in their own communities. In the last decade, we’ve equipped more than 13,000 churches in nearly 100 countries. With the support of Lilly Endowment, we are able to empower strategically located churches here in the U.S. to provide help when it’s most needed, knowing that together we can achieve greater impact for God’s kingdom.” 

Through this initiative, World Vision aims to equip 10 churches across the United States from the National Baptist Convention and churches that are under the leadership of Elizabeth Baptist Church in Atlanta to serve as pre-positioned disaster response distribution hubs that are ready to respond quickly when storms impact their communities. These church hubs, strategically located in disaster-prone and vulnerable communities, will receive ongoing truckloads of disaster relief supplies. In partnership with Operation Blessing and Wheaton College, World Vision will also provide the church hubs with capacity development training around logistics and operations, trauma-informed care, effective communications, volunteering, and more.  

“Local churches are uniquely positioned to care for their communities before, during, and after a disaster,” said Reed Slattery, World Vision’s national director of U.S. Programs “This funding allows us to expand from our six storehouses to an additional 10 church-based hubs, with relief supplies positioned closer to vulnerable communities so more people can get the help they need more quickly. It also allows us to develop training resources for churches so that they can quickly share information as well as rapidly coordinate and scale on-the-ground relief in their communities.”  

A unique feature of World Vision’s disaster response is its Pastor Ambassador program, through which pastors who previously partnered with World Vision in their own communities during a natural disaster deploy to support fellow pastors in newly affected areas. These pastors receive spiritual first aid training from Wheaton College so they are better equipped to help their communities deal with trauma after a disaster. They then also offer encouragement, spiritual care, and peer support to their fellow pastors.   

“Churches are often where people run to during times of crisis,” said Bishop Craig Oliver Sr. of Elizabeth Baptist Church in Atlanta. “With the support of World Vision and Lilly Endowment, we can respond more faithfully and effectively, providing tangible relief while sharing the love of God with our communities.” 

The grant to World Vision is one of 30 grants being awarded through Hope After the Storm, an initiative which aims to strengthen the capacity of faith-based organizations to provide aid to individuals and families affected by disasters in communities throughout the United States. 

Lilly Endowment recognizes that faith-based organizations play a key role in providing disaster relief services in the United States. They also serve as important vehicles through which individuals and religious communities live out their faith and serve others by volunteering and giving funds and other resources to address the immediate needs of their neighbors.   

 
About World Vision 
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. Motivated by our faith in Jesus Christ, we serve alongside the poor and oppressed as a demonstration of God’s unconditional love for all people. World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. For more information, visit worldvision.org or follow on X @WorldVisionUSA. 

 
About Lilly Endowment 
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion. The Endowment funds programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion, and maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.