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What is Sightsavers?
Sightsavers is an international charity that works to prevent avoidable blindness, fight neglected tropical diseases and promote equal rights for women, girls and people with disabilities. Its guiding idea is summed up on its own site: “We start with sight, but we don’t stop there” Sightsavers. In practice, that means eye care is the entry point, not the whole mission — a cataract operation or trachoma treatment is paired with efforts to help people earn, learn and take part in society.
What the organisation actually does
Its work spans more than 30 countries in Africa and Asia, and includes training health workers, providing eye operations, campaigning on disability rights and improving women’s health. Alongside service delivery, Sightsavers campaigns for inclusion so that disabled people can participate equally, and it publishes annual reports and information about how it is run.
Where donations go
The site states that 92% of donations, including donated supplies, go to its charity work, while 8% supports growing awareness and funding. That split matters if you are comparing charities on efficiency: it is a concrete figure published by the organisation itself, and it is worth reading the fuller explanation of spending rather than treating the headline number alone as a verdict.
Ways to get involved
- Donate, including through a regular TV appeal gift
- Leave a legacy gift in your will
- Fundraise as an individual
- Explore corporate partnerships
- Read and share stories, blogs and case studies
- Follow campaigns on disability rights and inclusion
A useful next step is to match your interest to the evidence on the site. If you care about a specific disease, look for its trachoma and disease-fighting material. If inclusion is your priority, start with the campaigning and disability pages. If you are considering a legacy, read the annual reports and the “where will my money go” explanation first, then decide whether the published priorities align with what you want your gift to achieve.
How can I donate to Sightsavers or support their work?
Sightsavers offers several ways to give, and the right one depends on whether you want to make a one-off gift, commit to regular support, or leave something longer-lasting.
Ways to give
- One-off donation. The homepage frames this around impact: a gift today could help stop a child going blind from preventable causes. This suits people who want a simple, immediate contribution.
- Regular giving. Monthly support is the usual structure for charities doing long-term programmes such as training health workers and running eye operations; it gives them predictable funding. Worth choosing if you want sustained impact rather than a single gesture.
- Legacy gift in your will. Sightsavers explicitly invites supporters to leave a donation in their will, describing it as support that can last for generations. This suits people planning their estate rather than giving now.
- Corporate partnerships. If you represent a business rather than giving personally, this is the relevant route.
- Fundraising and campaigning. Beyond money, you can raise funds yourself or back their disability rights and inclusion campaigning work.
Where the money goes
Sightsavers states that 92% of donations, including donated supplies, go to its charity work, and 8% to growing awareness and funding. If overhead ratios matter to your decision, that is the figure to weigh against other charities you are considering.
A practical next step
Decide first what kind of supporter you want to be: a one-off donor, a monthly giver, a legacy pledger, or a campaigner. Then go to the relevant section of Sightsavers — "Help as an individual," "Corporate partnerships," or "Leave a gift in your will" — rather than starting from the homepage, which mixes all of these together.
For context on how this compares with other sight-related charities, you can also look at Orbis and RNIB, though their structures and geographic focus differ from Sightsavers' work across more than 30 countries in Africa and Asia.
What does Sightsavers do to prevent avoidable blindness and fight disease?
Sightsavers works on the causes of avoidable blindness and on the diseases that lead to it, mainly across Africa and Asia. Its stated mission is to prevent avoidable blindness, fight disease and ensure everyone can earn, learn and thrive, and it describes work in more than 30 countries—training health workers, providing eye operations and supporting people with disabilities.
What the work involves
- Eye health services: Training health workers and providing eye operations, so treatment reaches people who would otherwise lose their sight.
- Fighting disease: Tackling diseases that cause blindness, with trachoma elimination named as a leadership area. Its own story about a trachoma surgeon in Uganda and a feature on the history of trachoma show how it frames the disease side of the mission.
- Disability rights and inclusion: Campaigning so people with disabilities can participate equally in society, plus work on women's health.
- Reaching people directly: Community-level programmes, including rural surgery camps, rather than only national policy work.
The two halves reinforce each other: preventing and treating disease stops blindness before it starts, while inclusion work addresses what happens to people already living with visual impairment. The story of Ruth, who has a visual impairment and now runs several small businesses, illustrates the second half—earning a living, not just medical treatment.
If you are deciding whether to support it
The distinguishing feature is the combination of direct service delivery with campaigning, and the stated split of 92% of donations going to charity work and 8% to awareness and fundraising. If you care most about measurable medical outcomes, look at the disease and surgery programmes; if you care about rights and long-term inclusion, the campaigning and disability work is the relevant part. A practical next step is to read the annual reports and the "where will my money go" breakdown before choosing a giving option such as a one-off donation, a corporate partnership or a legacy gift. For a broader view of eye health charities, RNIB covers UK sight loss services and WHO publishes global data on avoidable blindness.
How does Sightsavers campaign for disability rights and equality for women and girls?
Sightsavers treats disability rights and gender equality as part of its health mission rather than a separate add-on: the same programmes that prevent blindness and treat disease are also designed to make sure people can earn, learn and take part in society. Its own framing is "we start with sight, but we don't stop there" — eye care is the entry point, and inclusion is the goal.
Disability rights and inclusion
- Campaigning for rights and participation. The charity says it campaigns for disability rights and inclusion "so everyone can participate equally in society," and it publishes both its campaigning work and the reasons behind it.
- Inclusion built into programmes. Alongside eye operations and health-worker training, it reports supporting people with disabilities directly, rather than assuming medical treatment alone removes the barriers they face.
- People with lived experience front and centre. Its stories section features disabled people describing their own situations — for example Ruth, who has a visual impairment and now runs several small businesses after struggling to earn a living. That kind of story is used to argue for economic inclusion, not just sympathy.
Equality for women and girls
- Women's health as a named workstream. Improving women's health sits alongside sight and disability work in the countries where it operates.
- Why the overlap matters. In many communities, women and girls are the ones who take on caregiving and are least likely to reach eye care or surgery. Addressing gender is therefore a practical route to reaching patients who would otherwise be missed, and to making sure treatment translates into schooling, work and independence.
How the campaigning actually reaches people
Sightsavers uses public moments and everyday fundraising as campaign tools. World Sight Day is a recurring hook for explaining how eye care changes lives; a TV appeal and legacy gifts fund the work; corporate partnerships and individual giving widen the base. It states that 92% of donations, including donated supplies, go to its charity work, with 8% for awareness and fundraising — a figure worth reading alongside its annual reports if you want to judge how campaigning and programmes are balanced.
A practical way to judge whether this matters to you
If you care mainly about direct service delivery — surgery, treatment, trained health workers — this is a good fit, because campaigning and inclusion work are tied to those programmes. If you want to support advocacy specifically, look at the campaigning and disability sections and the annual reports before giving, and check how the countries and issues you care about are covered.
For a wider view of how disability inclusion is approached by other organisations, the United Nations publishes material on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the World Health Organization covers eye care and rehabilitation.
Where does Sightsavers operate and how many countries do they work in?
Sightsavers works across Africa and Asia, operating in more than 30 countries. The organisation describes its focus as preventing avoidable blindness, fighting disease, and supporting equality for women, girls, and people with disabilities.
What the country list means in practice
A presence in over 30 countries reflects long-running programmes rather than one-off projects. The work described includes training health workers, providing eye operations, supporting people with disabilities, improving women's health, and campaigning for disability rights and inclusion. For a donor or volunteer, that breadth means contributions support established in-country health systems and local staff, not just short campaigns.
A practical next step
If you want to see whether a specific country is covered, check the "See our work in action" and news sections on Sightsavers, which feature projects in places such as Uganda. For a broader overview of avoidable blindness programmes, the World Health Organization at WHO publishes global eye care data that helps put Sightsavers' 30-plus country footprint in context.
How does Sightsavers spend donations and what percentage goes to charity work?
92% of donations, including donated supplies, go to Sightsavers' vital charity work; the remaining 8% helps grow awareness and funding. That split is stated on the charity's own site, so it reflects how the organisation describes its allocation rather than an independent audit.
What the 92% funds
Sightsavers describes its work in more than 30 countries across Africa and Asia. Donations support activities such as training health workers, providing eye operations, fighting disease, supporting people with disabilities and improving women's health. The organisation frames its mission as preventing avoidable blindness, fighting disease and ensuring everyone can earn, learn and thrive.
What the 8% covers
The smaller share is described as helping grow awareness and funding. In practice, that means the communications, fundraising and supporter-engagement work that keeps the larger programme share running. It is not described as programme delivery.
How to judge whether that split is good
A high programme percentage is only one measure. A few practical checks:
- Look at the trend over time. One year's ratio can shift with a large legacy gift or a campaign push. Annual reports show whether 92/8 is typical or a single-year figure.
- Check what counts as "charity work." Donated supplies are included in the 92%, which can flatter the ratio compared with cash-only accounting.
- Match the split to the model. Sightsavers combines direct service work with campaigning for disability rights and inclusion, so some spending sits in advocacy and awareness rather than clinics.
- Read the annual reports. These give the audited breakdown behind the headline number.
A concrete reader scenario
If you are deciding on a regular gift, a legacy pledge or a workplace fundraising partnership, start with the annual reports and accounts rather than the homepage figure. They show how programme spending is distributed across countries and activities, and whether the 8% funding-and-awareness share is stable. For comparison with other international charities' published ratios, the Charity Commission for England and Wales and the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search hold official filings, and Charity Navigator publishes assessments of US-registered organisations.
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