In 1996 Bill Bright was awarded the $1.1 million Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, and donated the money to promote the spiritual benefits of fasting and prayer.

In 1942, Bill enlisted in the United States Navy Reserve but did not see combat service due to a burst eardrum from playing football during high school.

Bright was influenced by Henrietta Mears, who served as the Director of Christian Education at First Presbyterian Church, and Billy Graham, who later became a prominent American evangelical leader.

Before starting his campus ministry, Bright sold off his confections company and settled a financial dispute with his former business partners, the Taylor family.

However, Bill at the prompting of Zachary's parents agreed to delay the wedding until her impending 1948 graduation from Texas State College for Women.

Bright had initially planned to produce an evangelical film called "The Great Adventure" but abandoned the project due to a lack of funding.

[citation needed] Though Bright had initially considered partnering with other churches, his disenchantment with their ability to mentor new Christian converts led him to start Campus Crusade for Christ as a parachurch organization.

In 1951, after recruiting several volunteers from Fuller Seminary and Hollywood Presbyterian, Bright started Campus Crusade's first chapter at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

[10] According to Turner, Campus Crusade was also inspired by Bright's desire to combat Communist influence in US universities including UCLA, which was then regarded as a hotbed of student radicalism.

[14] In 1956, Bright wrote a 20–minute evangelistic presentation called "God's Plan for Your Life", which set the tone for Campus Crusade's evangelism and discipleship program.

The concept centers around Christians taking dominion of seven societal spheres of influence: "family, religion, education, media, art, economics, and government.

[25] As an evangelical Christian, Bright was also anti-Communist and stated that one of his reasons for starting Campus Crusade was to combat Communist influence in US universities.

[26] During the 1970s, Bright defended the South Korean President Park Chung Hee, who imposed martial law and assumed dictatorial powers.