By Michelle Nunn, CARE President & CEO
Dear Friends,
As spring arrives, a season of renewal and hope, I find myself reflecting on the remarkable resilience that carried CARE through perhaps the most challenging year in our history. 2025 disrupted the humanitarian system in ways few could have imagined, from unprecedented global aid cuts to cascading crises that left millions without essential support. Yet, even in that difficult year, something powerful emerged: an unwavering dedication to not only endure the storm but to reimagine our work for the future. I say this knowing that even now, our colleagues in Sudan, Gaza, and Lebanon, to name just a few, are confronting uncertainty and crises by finding new pathways to help their neighbors and communities.
CARE is facing into this new year more determined and more agile than ever before. In 2025, our teams around the world embraced what we’ve begun calling our “post‑triage” phase, moving from urgent response after the U.S. and other governments cut hundreds of millions of dollars to thoughtful, long-term reinvention. We confronted tough questions, redesigned systems, and listened deeply to the communities we serve. And together, we are developing a path forward that blends innovation, efficiency, and human-centered leadership.
This Spring issue is all about building that future — together.
Our new 2030 Strategy is now fully underway, centered on the pillars of Respond, Sustain, and Rise, which will guide how CARE delivers impact across the next decade. We are embracing digital tools to accelerate emergency responses, strengthening community-led systems that endure long after crises fade, and scaling women’s economic power, because when women rise, families and communities rise with them.
In this new era of humanitarian and development work, efficiency is essential, not as a trade‑off, but as a promise. Being efficient means delivering greater impact per dollar.
It means designing programs that are scalable, sustainable, and rooted in local leadership. It means using evidence and cost-effectiveness to stretch every investment further.
And it means doing so without compromising the compassionate, community‑centered approach that has defined CARE for 80 years.
But the most important truth from this past year is one I carry with deep gratitude: we simply could not build this future without you, your generosity and solidarity.
Your generosity sustained programs that might otherwise have disappeared. It ensured that women entrepreneurs could continue growing their businesses, that families displaced by conflict received lifesaving support, and that young girls remained in school even as global funding shrank. Your partnership, guidance and ideas enabled CARE to reimagine the iconic CARE PACKAGE® and shape bold efforts like RISE, our initiative to help 70 million people climb the economic ladder by 2030.
Thank you for standing with us through uncertainty, and for believing in what is possible. Because of you, CARE is not only weathering a challenging moment; we are leading the way in shaping what humanitarian work must look like in the years ahead: agile, community-driven, innovative, and always grounded in human dignity.
As we step into this spring season, I am continuing to find hope. There is so much work ahead, but there is also so much potential. Potential in communities determined to thrive, in women ready to lead, and in supporters like you who make the future possible.