CARE International
47
6
"Up" is the number of experts who agree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in the
field. "Down" is the number of experts who disagree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in field.
Headquarters Location: Atlanta, GA
Founded: 1945
Mission: CARE’s mission is to serve individuals and families in the poorest communities in the world. Drawing strength from CARE’s global diversity, resources and experience, it promotes innovative solutions and is an advocate for global responsibility.
Tags:
water, sanitation, hygiene education, hygiene, latrines, small-scale irrigation, drinking water, women, 2011
This organization has offices located worldwide. As the majority of our users are based in the U.S., the donation link is connected to the U.S. office.
This organization has offices located worldwide. As the majority of our users are based in the U.S., the donation link is connected to the U.S. office.
Summary
Stories
Expert Reviews
Leadership
From the Nonprofit
Leadership
Helene Gayle.
Helene D. Gayle is president and CEO of CARE USA. An expert on health, global development and humanitarian issues, she spent 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control, working primarily on HIV/AIDS. Dr. Gayle then directed the HIV, TB and Reproductive Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. At CARE, she heads one of the world's premier…
See full bio.
Transparency Information
This organization has earned the GuideStar Exchange Seal, demonstrating its commitment to transparency
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Financial Data for US Office
Overhead Ratio:
8.04%
Total Revenue:
$692,148,000
From the Nonprofit
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Contact Info
Address:
151 Ellis St NE
Atlanta, GA 30303, USA
Twitter:
Story:
For more than five decades, CARE has recognized the link between poverty and the lack of access to water. The strategic goal of our program is to enhance the livelihood security of poor communities through equitable access, efficient use and sustainable management of limited and dwindling water resources.
Our first water and sanitation project started in 1957. The program has expanded to include health and hygiene education and sanitation through the provision of latrines. Our drinking water, small-scale irrigation, and integrated conservation projects are world renowned. We place great emphasis on people making decisions about their own water and sanitation systems and water management by changing the ways governments do business when it comes to water and sanitation on a local, municipal and state level, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalized populations.
Impoverished women are disproportionately excluded from decisions regarding water's allocation and management. CARE provides women with equal decision-making power by including them in discussions on water and sanitation on the local, municipal and state levels. Women have more time for income-generating projects and school when they aren't spending hours each day hauling water. Access to safe water also results in women spending less time caring for family members who would otherwise fall sick due to unsafe water. Also, improved sanitation can keep a girl in school by making facilities available to her when she reaches puberty.
CARE has 115 projects in 44 countries with water or water-related activities.
Expert Reviews of CARE International
Evidence of Impact Summary:
Many experts mention that CARE has extensive experience in the WASH sector. They draw on their experiences and continuously improve their programs. They have strong programs and evaluation metrics. Their programs are sustainable in which many of their systems are still working after 15+ years. They have strong partnerships with different constituents including universities, nonprofit organizations, and local governments. They are dedicated to serve underserved people, including rural areas, and places that are often dangerous and where the needs are greatest. Experts also applaud their scalable and sustainable model and integrated approach to solving poverty.See expert comments.
Organization Strengths Summary:
Most experts mention that one of the core strengths of CARE is their leadership and staff. They are dedicated, highly reliable, efficient, and geographically diverse. In addition CARE has a strong visibility, good marketing, strong financials, and monitor and evaluate their impact. They have good relationships with local governments, allowing them to respond quickly to emergencies.See expert comments.
Areas for Improvement Summary:
Experts mention that CARE's WASH work need to be scaled to more countries and should also get more attention that it currently has. Other experts mention that CARE's large size can sometimes make it less nimble, that they can improve their documentation capabilities and evaluate and monitor their work.See expert comments.
Expert Comments: Evidence of Impact
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Strong Model |
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CARE is promoting clear strategies to ensure sustainability of water and sanitation services in the rural areas. | ||
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CARE has both breadth and depth of experience. As an organization, it is consciously making strides to work at scale--achieving district-wide coverage before moving to the next district. This model is unusual and commendable. | ||
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CARE often works in an integrated approach to poverty, which usually includes water and sanitation solutions. They look at problems in a systemic way and go beyond infrastructure to deal with issues of technical skills in governments and helping to inform policy with evidence. | ||
Long History and Knowledge about Sector |
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They have an ability to draw on a long history of learnings to continuously adjust to new programs. | ||
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CARE has an extensive experience in the wash sector that span over 50 years in Africa, Latin America countries, Asia and Eastern Europe. On these places you will find evidence of systems that are working and are sustainable after 15 + years. They have solid program at the field level, and focuses on governance issues and linkages with functionality. They conduct good research on WASH in schools . | ||
Strong Programs and Evaluation |
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They do a lot in the water space, generally both in central America and Africa clusters. They are quite good. | ||
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They create programming in the sector and evaluate their mechanisms of involvement properly. | ||
Strong Partnerships with Different Constituents |
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CARE has partnered with several organizations including Emory University to work on WASH in schools programs in Kenya. They have produced multiple studies identifying the impact that water, sanitation and hygiene have on school programs when done individually or combined. | ||
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I have seen excellent work done by CARE in Central America and in Africa. I only know the WASH team so I cant speak of the rest of the organization, which is very large. They have thought through their water investments and even though they are so large, have partnered with other, much smaller groups to raise the game of lots of NGOs. They work closely with governments and have actually improved the capacity of local government to deliver services. | ||
Serve Underserved People |
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CARE has an exceptional record of serving underserved people in the developing world. Their people serve in places that are often dangerous and where the needs are greatest. | ||
Expert Comments: Organization Strengths
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Foundation Professionals (F)
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Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Good in Marketing |
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They are good in marketing and visibility, exchange of lessons learned, and have an integrated focus on water resources. | ||
Have Large Resources |
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I think CARE does a good job of funding projects across sectors and in many different environmental, cultural, and policy situations. They are efficient at raising and mobilizing funds on a large scale. | ||
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I'm providing a set of general observations for these large organizations, which I have interacted with over the years on multiple continents: The shared strengths of these organizations is access to resources, strong technical expertise, and broad comprehensive programs that have the potential to create synergy when integrated together in regional initiatives. | ||
Dedicated and Capable Staff |
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They hire good local staff. | ||
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Strong leadership of the water team. Geographically diverse staff based in many countries. Good linkages to local governments. | ||
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They have a strong team, some very solid programs and tremendous advocacy potential that is often realized. | ||
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The WASH leadership at CARE has demonstrated the effectiveness and impact internal organizational program integration can have on field work. CARE is a leader in advocacy related to policy in several of the WASH program countries. | ||
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They have strong technical staff and good relationships with governments. Their strong presence in country helps them to respond quickly to emergencies. | ||
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Their staff are dedicated, highly committed, and able. They are highly reliable and efficient. They are especially committed to Women's health and literacy. They are part of a great network so badly needed to reach the most disadvantaged people. Their record of sustainability is outstanding. | ||
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They have good leadership in Atlanta and an excellent HQ team. They also have good financial systems in place, a solid finance system, highly qualify staff, and advocacy at the field level and in Washington DC. | ||
Strong Expert Knowledge |
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They have strong expert knowledge, strong on the ground implementation. | ||
Influence on Other Organizations |
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Nearly all of the WASH work that CARE does is through partnership, meaning that they are influencing other NGOs to do more impactful in the process of improving water, sanitation, and hygiene at the community level. CARE recognizes the power of its voice and uses it to advocate to governments in developing countries, as well as to the US government and other funding sources. | ||
Strong Monitor & Evaluation |
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They can monitor and evaluate their interventions properly. | ||
Work in Challenging Areas |
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CARE is a great organization. They work in some of the more challenging areas and are respected on the ground. | ||
Expert Comments: Areas for Improvement
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Foundation Professionals (F)
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Researchers and Faculty (R)
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Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
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Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Improve on Monitor & Evaluation |
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They can work closer with local governments and improve on their monitoring and evaluation. | ||
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The weaknesses, and why I struggle to provide a blanket rating, is that they are so large, each country-level office almost need to be rated as it's own organization. In some countries I've been deeply impressed with their philosophy, strategies, and results, while in others extremely disappointed. Decentralization is critical for large agencies like this, especially in order to allow programs to be contextual and relevant in each region, however, the disparity in program quality suggests that a universal set of guiding principles and best practices could be applied more effectively across these organizations along with systems for accountability to ensure they are being followed. | ||
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They are very bureaucratic. They have very very high indirect (in fact, their advertising about money going to programs stretches the truth). They tends to follow donor timelines so that they discontinue good projects when funding ends. | ||
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They can improve their documentation capabilities and bring solid evidence from their program of what work or does not work. They can also improve documentation of experiences in the field. | ||
Take a More Long Term Approach |
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Its over corporate approach leads it to reduce interventions in some cases to a business plan approach. They also have a tendency to a short-term approach to fit into the project cycle. They have become too donor and short term results led. This is increasingly leading to 'legacy' problems, so if you return to a project 2/3 years after it has 'finished' the real results can be flaky . | ||
Improve Donor Communication |
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They need more connection between on the ground and advocacy. They also need to improve ability to communicate impact with donors. | ||
Scale WASH Work |
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WASH work within CARE is typically focused on Africa and usually within one or two areas within a country. It would be great if CARE could use their knowledge and experience to scale up their efforts throughout Africa or replicate their effective programming to other countries with similar characteristics (i.e. climate, culture, rural vs. urban). | ||
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CARE is large and I am not sure that wash gets the attention that it deserves. Also not sure how it is integrated into the other work that is done by care-- specifically on women and children's issues | ||
Increase Nimbleness |
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As a large organization, it's not so nimble--it can take a lot to move it. The Water Team has great leadership, but it should be thinking more about what happens when they leader leaves. | ||
Staff Restructuring in Headquarters |
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While I believe the country programs are strong, CARE USA seems to be in serious trouble, blowing through their reserves, ongoing chaos due to continuing restructuring and significant layoffs, and lack of confidence in the leadership. It's a real shame. | ||
Secure Mechanisms Everywhere |
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Since they are so decentralized, they can not secure the same mechanisms apply everywhere. | ||
Leadership
Helene Gayle
President and CEO
President and CEO
From the Nonprofit
The nonprofit has not added any comments yet. If you are a representative of this nonprofit and would like to leave a comment, please email us at
feedback@myphilanthropedia.org
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