MinistryWatch 1000 Database: Ministries Receiving Largest Government Grants

World Vision tops list again with $636 million in government grants.

The MinistryWatch 1000 database entries for ministries includes the amount they receive from government grant funding as reported on their most recent IRS Form 990.

This month’s list is a compilation of the 50 Christian ministries who received the largest government grants and a comparison to their rankings on the list started last year.

The total revenue from government grants on this list was $2.7 billion. The smallest grant was about $5 million for Hope College, and the largest grant totaled $636 million for World Vision, down from $661 million last year.

For other lists, we often segregate colleges and universities, but they are included with other Christian ministries in this list.

Eight of the top 10 recipients were relief and development organizations. The recipient of the largest sum of government grants is also the largest ministry in the database: World Vision.

• World Vision has annual revenue of about $1.6 billion, $637 million of which came from government grants—about 39 % of its revenue, down from 44% last year.
• Endeavors, a new addition to the database, was second with $391 million in grants — 96% of its annual revenue. In third place was Mercy Corps with $320 million of its $465 million in revenue coming from government grants. Church World Service took $251 million in government grants — 89% of its $284 million annual revenue.
• Samaritan’s Purse, a relief group with over $1.8 billion in annual revenue, took about $76 million in government grants, placing it at 8 on our list. However, the grant funds it received only amounted to 4% of its total revenue, about the same percentage as last year.
• Faith Family Academy Charter Schools was the largest recipient based on percentage of total annual revenue. Of its $44 million in annual revenue, over $43 million — or 98% — was from government grants.
• Some notable movement up the list: Medical Teams moved from 19 to No. 14, World Help moved from No. 43 to No. 25, Azusa Pacific moved from No. 36 to No. 27, and Starry Inc. moved from No. 41 to No. 31.
• There are 17 ministries on this year’s list that did not appear on the list in 2025. They are Endeavors ( 2), Faith Family Academy Charter Schools (No. 12), Mercer University (No. 15), Trinity University (No. 28), Chapman University (No. 30), CURE International (No. 32), Feed the Children (No. 34), Unbound Now (No. 36), Abilene Christian University (No. 38), CrossPurpose (No. 40), Asbury University (No. 42), Campbellsville University (No. 43), Development Associates International (No. 44), Howard Payne University (No. 46), Colorado Christian University (No. 47), Buckner International (No. 48), and Hope College (No. 50).

To learn more about a ministry, click on its name in the list to go to its database entry. There you can learn about its Transparency Grade, Financial Efficiency Rating, and Donor Confidence Score.