Why can’t I find the missionary, staff, or project I’m looking for?
There are several possible reasons for this:
- The name is misspelled, or doesn’t match our records. This search tends to be very specific; so sometimes you can search for ‘Jane and John Doe’, or ‘John Doe’ and you won’t get any results; but if you search for ‘John and Jane Doe’, or just ‘Doe’ it will work. For a description of how to enter better search terms, read the next help tip below.
- The person you are looking for is working in a “secured” country or has chosen to not be publically listed on our website. We have many staff members throughout the world who are working in countries where it would be dangerous to be publically associated with WorldVenture, so they won’t show up in our search results. If you want to give to someone in a secured country, or to someone or something you can't find, click the 'Give to Unlisted Missionaries or Projects' button on this page, or click here (please note: this feature is not available if you're giving multiple gifts at once).
Below is an explanation of the different searching options for finding a project or missionary:
You are presented with several different options to find the missionary or project you’re looking for. You don’t need to fill out all of the fields, or even more than one. The more you choose or fill in, the more specific your search will be. Once you’ve filled in at least one field, you will hit the blue ‘Search’ button at the bottom to reveal your results.
"Missionary or Project Name:" This should be your primary search option. You may enter any name here, first or last, or any part of the project name. It does not need to be a full name (i.e. John and Jane Doe). Most often, the best idea is to just enter a last name (i.e. Doe) or a key word in the project name (i.e. water). Keep in mind that if you misspell their name it will come up short. Capitalization doesn’t matter.
"Designation ID:" If you happen to know the fund identification number for a staff member or project, which would most often be given to you by your missionary or a staff member, you can enter it here. This can the best way to find a specific project or missionary, especially if you can’t find it using the other search methods above. Do not include dashes, pound signs (#) or any other characters; numbers only. For example, use 4200902 instead of 4200-902.
Search Results:
Once you have clicked the blue ‘Search’ button, your Search Results will be displayed below. You will see a list of results, with green navigation buttons at the bottom to show more pages of results.
What is the difference between the accounts (Personal Support, Ministry Account, Personal Gift, etc)?
- Personal Support: Personal support is the “meat and potatoes” of ministry support. It is our staff’s primary source of “income”. This goes to supporting the living expenses (food, rent, passports, etc.) and all other costs of doing ministry internationally (which can be very expensive!). Our staff depends on this support to do what they do and to “make disciples of all nations”. These gifts are tax deductible.
- Ministry Support: Ministry support is for direct ministry expenses and projects; this pays for things like bibles for pastors, musical instruments, art supplies, brochures, or anything else the individual needs to do their specific ministry in their country. These gifts are tax deductible.
- Personal Gift (Non-Deductible): A personal gift is a cash gift to an individual, usually for a special event like their birthday. These gifts are not assessed (“taxed” by WorldVenture) and all of it goes straight to them; however, these gifts are not tax deductible. Most of the time our staff prefer you give to their Personal Support account instead, this one is isn’t used as often.
- Project: If you want to only search missionary’s projects (or general WorldVenture initiatives), you may want to select this option. A project is for example a building fund, or a specific orphanage. Most often, our staff will give you a name of a project you can search for. Gifts to projects are tax deductible.
The search results correspond to the search fields described above. You will see something like this:
John and Jane Smith – Personal Support
Country: India | Area: Asia | Fund ID: 1234567
The big green words are the actual people or projects you can give to. Click the green words to donate to this person(s) or project. The words right after the name, in grey (‘Personal Support’ in the example above) correspond to the four accounts described just above. Note that ‘Fund ID’ is the same as the Designation ID.
Still have questions?
If this doesn’t answer your question, and you haven’t been able to find your answer in any other steps, please feel free to contact us and we will be glad to help you with our online donation process. Click Here to Contact Us.