Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Projects at CARE

“As one of the world’s leading aid agencies in an era of unprecedented humanitarian challenges, CARE seeks to harness innovation in order to enhance our effectiveness. In that connection, we are pleased to accept donations of marketable cryptocurrencies to support our fight against global poverty and threats like COVID-19. We welcome the opportunity to deploy emerging technologies like crypto to help us achieve social impact at scale.”

— Glenn Hutchins, Chair, CARE Board of Directors; Chairman, North Island and North Island Ventures; and Co-Founder, Silver Lake

CARE’s Blockchain and Crypto Programs

The benefits that new technologies such as blockchain, distributed ledgers, and digital assets can provide are potentially tremendous, yet practical applications to accelerate impact in the humanitarian sector remain scarce. CARE has been exploring how these emerging technologies can help meet the needs of the world’s most vulnerable people and humanitarian goals. In 2022, CARE successfully completed pilots to test the use of cryptocurrency in Kenya and Ecuador.

CARE Kenya and Binance Charity

CARE Kenya has partnered with Binance Charity Foundation, the charitable arm of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volumes. CARE uses Binance’s BUSD stablecoin as a voucher-based system to promote economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic among Village Savings and Loan Association groups in Western Kenya. We now seek to scale this pilot program to build financial resilience and improve food security for an estimated 3,000 at-risk people living in poverty in the region.

CARE Ecuador and Umoja Labs

Thanks to the support of the Celo Foundation, CARE Ecuador has partnered with Umoja Labs to test the use of crypto-vouchers to help Ecuadorian women and Venezuelan refugees access health services. Read the case study: Leveraging the Power of Cryptocurrency to Improve Humanitarian Outcomes. We now seek to scale this pilot program to expand access to health services and nutrition for 10,000 Venezuelan and Colombian refugees and migrants, mostly women and children. Learn more.

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Explainer: How are Humanitarian Aid Organizations Using Blockchain and Web3?

Blockchain promises utopian ideals of decentralization and transparency, which are particularly appealing to the aid sector. However, as aid organizations and technology vendors build more public-private partnerships, it’s vital for the former to develop technical capacity and risk awareness among staff.

Read the article on Future of Good

Morning Brew: Crypto for a cause: These 3 charities show how donating crypto can immediately impact people in need

Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crypto have been donated to nonprofits over the last year. Read on to learn how crypto fundraising has helped CARE, Save the Children, and WaterAid—and how you, too, can donate crypto to make a charitable impact.

Read the article on Morning Brew

CARE Chooses Celo and Emerging Impact as First Blockchain Partners in Latin America

CARE USA today announced that it has selected Celo, an open-source blockchain ecosystem focused on making decentralized financial (DeFi) systems and tools accessible to anyone with a smartphone, to leverage the benefits of blockchain technology for the first time in its program in Latin America.

Seeking Signals Through the Noise: CARE Launches 1st Crypto Voucher Pilots in Kenya and Ecuador

CARE is partnering with leaders in the cryptocurrency movement to deliver crypto-based vouchers to women and groups in Africa and Latin America.

Devex: CARE tests cryptocurrency vouchers for aid delivery in Kenya, Ecuador

International humanitarian organization CARE has launched pilot programs in Ecuador and Kenya to test how blockchain and cryptocurrency technology might improve aid delivery to women and women’s groups in particular.

Read the article on Devex

Cointelegraph: Helping Afghanistan: Organizations currently accepting crypto donations

Basic needs for refugees, medical care on the ground and visa assistance — some crypto users are sending tokens to nonprofits and others to help the Afghan people.

Read the article on Cointelegraph

CARE Package NFT Project Delivers Urgent Humanitarian Aid to Afghan Families in Need

Each edition of this NFT covers one family's emergency needs for a month.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy: Is Crypto the Next Big Thing in Fundraising? Ukraine Aid Groups Aim to Find Out

In the 2000s, disaster-relief groups began testing ways to raise money via something relatively new called the World Wide Web. Today, online giving is essential to virtually every organization and accounts for more than 10 percent of all donations.

Read the article on Philanthropy.com

Cointelegraph Magazine: Crypto is changing how humanitarian agencies deliver aid and services

In the developing world, where access to financial and banking systems is limited or nonexistent, innovative humanitarian organizations are piloting micro-blockchain ecosystems.

Read the article on Cointelegraph

CARE Failing Forward Podcast: The Chance To Choose Something Different: Crypto, Cash, and Refugees

Monica Tobar and Ronald Picso talk about their experience working with cryptocurrency instead of cash to support refugees and host communities in Ecuador.

Listen to the podcast

Blockchain and Crypto at CARE

Women’s Economic Justice