“Thanks to the 2025 Balikatan Conference Special Project, our staff now come home to a space that is safe and comfortable. These two renovated staff apartments means rest, dignity, and a place to be renewed for our staff. Salamat for investing not just in walls, but in the wellbeing of the people who carry the IVCF ministry forward.
If there’s one section of this report that’s really about you, it’s this one. Balikatan and our other North American partner groups remain IVCF’s single largest source of support, and this year, your combined giving covered roughly half of every field staff worker’s salary, nationwide.
The Channel With Your Name On It
That 50% figure is about staff salaries specifically. Zoom out to the whole organization’s books, and this year tells a fuller story. IVCF’s total revenue grew by about 11% this year, climbing to $595,447 — the strongest year of overall growth we’ve seen in a while. That growth came mostly from IVCF graduates in the Philippines, local partners and churches we’ve been training. Two percent of our revenue came from IFES scholarships and a grant. As a direct result, North American giving — Balikatan and your affiliated fellowship groups across the US and Canada, combined — made up about 36% of IVCF’s total revenue this year, down from 42% the year before.
Here’s what that shift means, and what it doesn’t. It is not a story of Balikatan stepping back. It is a story of the IVCF graduates here in the Philippines and in other countries increasing in its capacity to support IVCF. We believe this growth is encouraging to you as it is to us.
In dollar terms, there was a dip: combined North American giving came in at $195,160 this year, down from $206,430 the year before, and Balikatan’s own giving specifically totaled $142,966, down from $158,588. But look one layer deeper, and a more encouraging trend appears. One hundred thirty-two individual people gave through Balikatan and its affiliated fellowships this year, up from 117 the year before — more of you, collectively, partnered with us than in any year on record. And zoom out three years: Balikatan’s giving stood at $118,749 in 2022-23. Even after this year’s dip, it remains a fifth higher than that.
TABLE: Annual North American Giving to IVCF (in USD)
| Fellowship Group | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balikatan | $118,749 | $154,632 | $158,588 | $142,966 |
| KSO, Quebec, Nunavut | $3,032 | $10,232 | $15,625 | $17,269 |
| KSA | $14,532 | $10,375 | $15,062 | $16,916 |
| BC Connection | $4,935 | $4,815 | $7,776 | $5,164 |
| ACTS-IVCF | $10,616 | $7,227 | $9,379 | $12,845 | Ugnayan | $27,917 | $16,886 | $20,607 | $20,414 |
| TOTAL | $179,781 | $204,167 | $227,037 | $215,574 |
| % of IVCF’s Annual Revenue | 41% | 40% | 42% | 36% |
| Your Partnership, By The Numbers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 36% of IVCF’s total revenue this year came from North American partners like you |
132 individual givers across Balikatan and its affiliated fellowships — a new high |
9 average number of gifts per giver — most of you give more than once a year |
+28% Balikatan’s own giving has grown over the past three years, even after this year’s dip |
The Campaign That Exceeded Every Expectation
This year’s clearest answer to prayer was the Bless the Staff Campaign, run every November and December to help cover the staff team’s 13th-month pay. It didn’t just meet its goal — it beat it by 44%, with gifts still quietly arriving as late as April, months after the campaign had officially ended. Staff contributed contacts from their own networks, Board members both gave and invited others to give, and the appeal letters were rewritten, mid-campaign, to better speak to the people actually reading them. It worked because people who already loved this ministry simply kept showing up for it.
| What Your Partnership Made Possible This Year | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 52% of partners renewed their support — and gave more generously than the year before |
+44% Bless the Staff Campaign result, above its original goal |
166 faithful partners whose continued giving anchored the year |
~50% of every field staff salary, nationwide, covered by Balikatan and partners |
Fifty-two percent of partners who gave last year gave again this year — and as a group, they actually increased what they gave, by more than what last year’s returning partners increased by. In an era when many nonprofits struggle just to keep donors, that kind of loyalty is rare, and we don’t take it for granted.
Faithful With the Small Things, Too
Behind the scenes, our Administration & Finance team spent much of this year untangling old, unresolved paperwork with two Philippine government agencies (BIR and SEC) — the kind of unglamorous compliance work that doesn’t make for an exciting story, but matters enormously for an organization that wants to be trustworthy with what you give. By March, key certificates were finally renewed, after months of dogged follow-up. The team also kept every legally required filing current, audited the books, and held firm to a long-standing internal rule: no more than 30% of the budget goes to administration, with 70% reserved for program.
THE IVCF BUILDING
The Balikatan Conference 2022 project made possible the repainting and retiling of the IVCF Building second floor where our offices, conference room, guest rooms, and library are. Last year’s Conference made possible the renovation of two staff apartments on the ground floor of the IVCF Building. Our Admin & Finance Coordinator, Elecil, happily notes, “The IVCF Building in Manila is alive with students again after the pandemic years — hosting student trainings and gatherings, overnight student planning meetings, even a new student pickleball group, and serving as temporary housing for some students and a recent graduate during internships this year.”
What This Means Going Into Next Year
The team’s priorities for 2026–27: strengthen regional fundraising capacity and continue shifting the culture — among staff, students, and graduates alike — from seeing fundraising as an awkward financial chore toward seeing it the way Scripture frames it: an invitation to participate in what God is already doing. A student in Central-Eastern Visayas captured that shift perfectly this year. With two weeks left before camp and only a tenth of her budget raised, she sat in a fundraising workshop and realized, for the first time, that the provision was never actually hers to carry alone. By the time camp began, the funds had come in — and the camp closed with a surplus.