Double your Impact
Thanks to a generous donation from celebrity ambassador Patricia Heaton and David Hunt, any gift given to the World Vision Fund on Giving Tuesday, November 29, will be MATCHED up to $1 million — empowering even more kids and families to create change that lasts.
Double your Impact
Thanks to a generous donation from celebrity ambassador Patricia Heaton and David Hunt, any gift given to the World Vision Fund on Giving Tuesday, November 29, will be MATCHED up to $1 million — empowering even more kids and families to create change that lasts.
Patricia Heaton is an Emmy®-winning actor and producer, best known for her roles on Everybody Loves Raymond, and The Middle. She has authored several books, including Your Second Act and Patricia Heaton’s Food for Family & Friends. Patricia is also a philanthropist and was the first celebrity to join the World Vision Celebrity Ambassador Network.
Patricia Heaton
World Vision Celebrity Ambassador
Get to know Patricia Heaton
When Patricia Heaton was trying to break through in acting, she wasn’t sure it would work out, and she questioned if that was what God wanted for her life. Patricia grew up just outside of Cleveland. From a young age, her Catholic faith was an important part of her life. After high school she attended The Ohio State University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in drama. She pursued her dream of acting by moving to New York City where she continued studying drama. She and fellow students created an acting troupe, which eventually took her to Los Angeles, where she struggled to get her career to take off.
During that season, she traveled to Mexico to visit an orphanage with a church group, and when she returned, she felt great peace about her acting and said to God,
I’m willing to let go of that if you want me to go back to Mexico or go into the mission field. But make it very clear that’s the direction you want me to go in. —Patricia Heaton
And He did make it clear. Once she felt at peace that her identity didn’t rest solely in whether she made it as an actor, her career began to take off.
She landed a role and went on to build a name for herself, portraying Debra Barone on the hit CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond from 1996 to 2005 and then as Frances “Frankie” Heck on the ABC sitcom The Middle from 2009 to 2018. She has delighted viewers and even been recognized with seven Primetime Emmy® Award nominations, including two Emmy® wins for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She also won a Daytime Emmy® Award for Outstanding Culinary Program for her work as host of Patricia Heaton Parties. In 2012, she had the honor of receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame May 22, 2012.
In 2019, Meme, 5, in Guatemala chose Patricia Heaton to be his child sponsor.
Handcrafted gifts
Each year, Patricia Heaton works with a fair-trade artisan to design a handcrafted gift for the World Vision Gift Catalog. When you give one of these gifts, your donation goes through the World Vision Fund to help empower kids and families around the world out of poverty for good.
As a mother of four adult children, Patricia considers her work with World Vision her own second act.
She writes about some of her experiences in her 2020 book, Your Second Act: Inspiring Stories of Reinvention.
Her faith has driven her to both care about and advocate for people living in poverty around the world. She became the founding member of the World Vision Celebrity Ambassador Network in 2015, and in that same year, she and her son Dan traveled to Zambia to meet her sponsored child. In 2017, she and her The Middle co-star, Beau Wirick, traveled to Jordan to support World Vision’s humanitarian response and meet with Syrian refugees. Her heart for refugees continued to grow, and a year later in August 2018, she traveled with another The Middle co-star, Jen Ray, to meet South Sudanese refugees living in Uganda.
Just a few months later in February 2019, her globetrotting continued to Rwanda with Entertainment Tonight and NBC’s The Voice finalist Wé McDonald in light of the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide to raise awareness about the global water crisis. That same year, she was chosen by 5-year-old Meme in Guatemala to be his child sponsor through World Vision’s new sponsorship experience, Chosen. Then in August 2022, Patricia traveled to Kenya with Entertainment Tonight to shed light on the global hunger crisis where millions of children are currently experiencing malnutrition.
Patricia Heaton on Rachael Ray
Artisan-crafted celebrity gifts
In addition to her travels and advocacy work on behalf of World Vision, Patricia has also been a spokesperson for World Vision’s Gift Catalog, which encourages people to give lasting gifts that will help people around the world living in poverty. She has helped design several handcrafted gift products, which donors receive when they give a gift of a certain amount to the World Vision Fund. She helped design the Hope Bracelet in 2017, the Grace Collection in 2018, the Opportunity Collection in 2019, the Unity Tassel Necklace in 2020, the Wrapped in Hope scarf, and this year, in 2022, she has helped design the “Woven Together” bowl. All of these products are handcrafted in conjunction with World Vision’s partner, Gifts With a Cause, by local artisans who are paid fair wages and work in safe conditions. She has also made appearances at World Vision’s Give-back Gift Shop in New York City to raise awareness about Giving Tuesday, child sponsorship, and the Gift Catalog.
Because of all her work with World Vision, Patricia was honored by the Creative Coalition’s fourth annual Television Advocacy Awards in September 2018. The awards honor members of the entertainment industry who use their platforms to make an impact in their communities and the world for the greater good.
[God] allowed me to have my acting career, which I love, but also to use it to help people. —Patricia Heaton
World Vision is grateful for our partnership with Patricia and looks forward to continuing to make an impact together.
The “Woven Together” bowl by Emmy®-winning actor, producer, bestselling author, and World Vision supporter Patricia Heaton makes a cheerful, one-of-a-kind gift. Each bowl is handcrafted from vibrant recycled saris by artisans in India who earn fair-trade wages to support their families.
Patricia and World Vision
As our first Celebrity Ambassador, Patricia Heaton has tirelessly traveled to see World Vision’s work around the world while sharing her experiences with her community of fans through media appearances and social media. Here are a few of our favorites.
