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BRAC

Headquarters: Dhaka, Bangladesh

2007 budget: $480 million

Employees: 110,000

Major operations: microcredit and poverty alleviation

Founded in 1972 to assist refugees after Bangladesh’s war of liberation, BRAC, formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, is the world’s largest nongovernmental organization. It boasts a $4.6 billion portfolio in microloans, an army of healthcare volunteers providing care to 80 million Bangladeshis, and a network of 52,000 schools serving 1.5 million students. As one of Bangladesh’s largest single employers, BRAC is often referred to as a minigovernment, responsible in part for many of the country’s economic and health gains. It is estimated that, coupled with a government immunization drive, the organization’s antidiarrhea efforts in rural Bangladesh have helped cut child mortality for children under 5 from 25 to 7 percent over the past three decades. Its contraception drives and pioneering microlending have also been credited with lowering fertility rates and reducing poverty. Inspired by these results, BRAC recently extended its programs to sub-Saharan Africa and Afghanistan.

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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Headquarters: Seattle, Wash.

2007 budget: Of the foundation’s $37 billion in assets, more than $2 billion in grants was given last year.

Employees: 540, but growing quickly

Major operations: improving global health, eradicating poverty, improving American education

The Gates Foundation’s work has been called “venture philanthropy.” It provides grants to innovative organizations—whether dedicated to creating new malaria vaccines, irrigation systems for poor African farmers, or scholarships for inner-city American kids—and pushes for results. The foundation’s deep pockets—by charter, it must give away at least $3 billion next year—have allowed it to increasingly set the global-health agenda, with half of its annual outlays dedicated to eradicating diseases in the developing world. Not everyone is happy with the foundation’s influence, however; the World Health Organization’s chief of malaria recently criticized the foundation for stifling dissenting views.

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World Vision

Headquarters: Federal Way, Wash.

2007 revenues: $977 million

Employees: 31,000

Major operations: food aid and emergency assistance

One of the world’s largest Christian charities, World Vision is the primary distributor for the U.N. World Food Program, last year delivering 147,000 metric tons of food—the equivalent of 4,900 semitrucks—to nearly three dozen countries. It is also one of the first organizations on the ground in humanitarian emergencies, assisting millions of survivors in more than 80 disasters around the world in 2007. World Vision has recently been at the forefront of efforts to reach victims of Cyclone Nargis in Burma and the devastating earthquake in China’s Sichuan province. World Vision’s work with U.S. President George W. Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, however, has come under fire. The charity has received tens of millions of dollars since 2003 to promote abstinence and other HIV prevention methods in countries such as Haiti, South Africa, and Zambia.

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Oxfam International

Headquarters: Oxford, England

2006-07 expenditures: $704 million

Employees: 6,200 field workers

Major operations: poverty alleviation and debt relief

Founded in 1942, Oxfam is today a confederation of 13 major organizations working in more than 100 countries to fight hunger, promote fair trade, relieve developing country debt, and provide emergency services during disasters. In particular, Oxfam is known for its highly effective public-relations campaigns—from celebrities getting dumped with coffee and milk to protest unfair agricultural subsidies to its prime role in 2005’s Make Poverty History campaign. With a widely recognized brand and a reputation for results, not to mention the organization’s Rolodex of celebrities and world leaders, much of Oxfam’s influence can be felt not only on the ground in poor countries where people depend on its charity to survive, but in rich countries, where it helps drive the public’s perception of development.

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Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders

Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland

2006-07 expenditures: approximately $770 million

Employees: 27,000

Major operations: establishing healthcare services in poor countries and providing emergency medical care

Doctors Without Borders might be called development’s canary in the coal mine: Its volunteer health and aid workers serve in and bring attention to some of the poorest, roughest neighborhoods on Earth, providing lifesaving care when other development agencies can’t justify the security concerns or don’t want to get embroiled in messy political environments. Serving the sick, the wounded, and the malnourished in more than 90 countries since 1971, the group has come to be known for its independent streak, speaking out against injustice, government-sponsored violence, and development waste.