CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere)

I have been donating for about 4 months, and I got an email from a staff member with an invite to D.C. conference. Beside her name in the signature were (she/her). I immediately called and said to cancel my sponsorship. I was told I was sponsoring education for underprivileged children. Apparently, I was paying for their indoctrination of this “woke” propaganda. It wasn’t obvious at first, but that is what they are about, and I won’t give them a dime.

I donated to help Ukraine on CARE.org. The form clearly stated it was for Ukraine. A gift receipt came from CARE saying the money was going to South Sudan.
Using the war on Ukraine as clickbait to fund other projects is immoral and downright obscene. I want the public to be aware of this practice.
I contacted CARE. It did not respond.

They debited more from my bank account and than I authorized. When I called them they could not tell me how or why and said a report was made and I would be called back but I was not. I was afraid they could take any amount from my bank account and there was no way I could stop them. I had to pay my bank to block them

They call me regularly and won't let you interrupt their explaination. But they call in the middle of the afternoon while I am working. Then they want you to contribute funds or commit to contributing funds right then and there. If you say no they want to mail you stuff anyways. I do not participate in anything sent by mail. As part of my job I try to optimize printing and do not want to receive extra mail. They freak out if you say that you do not want mail. Last time they called I told them no thank you 4 times and still ended up having to hang up on them. I'm no longer donating to this organization as a result of how pushy the callers are and their lack of caring regarding preferences of their donors. Stop killing the planet and sending crap by mail and stop harassing your donors.

I've been involved with CARE for the past ten plus years and have personally seen the work they do up close, as a researcher in the field, as a donor visiting sites, and as an advocate on the HILL. CARE is well-respected by host countries, other NGOs, and our State Department, and its holistic programs are carefully thought out to maximize empowering communities to effect change. CARE has made significant lasting change, especially regarding women and girls' health, as well as helping millions with disaster relief and rebuilding efforts. CARE continually assesses how its doing and uses and shares lessons learned with other NGOS to continually improve on programming.

Awful, waste of my money.
CARE does little except hound donors for more!

I've been trying for 5 months to get off their list!
They ignore written & phone requests.

I have donated to this organization in the past several times. In January they sent a request for money that essentially where you can choose to give a donation and make it one and done which I did. It said to allow 8 weeks for it to take effect. I get continual harassment from CARE from not only Georgia but also from Merrifield, Virginia as well. I guess you could say just throw them out when they come in the mail. Now I am getting harassed continually via my private e-mail address as well. I wish I could file a more formal complaint for harassment with someone as they are total liars and harassers as well. I've reached the point where I am no longer polite with these people, especially after the uninvited invasion into my private e-mail. I don't know what else to do to stop the harassment.

Good luck getting off their mailing list. I have sent multiple requests in writing AND a personal letter to senior management and still they are happy to harass my frail, ill parents. It's unfortunate that any "care" the might have ends when they smell a dollar. BTW - they were warned that we would take this route to try to convince them to let my severely ill parents alone!

I convinced coworkers to join me in sending donations to CARE after a horrific natural disaster in the early 2000's. After that, the solicitations started coming...and coming...and coming. I tried to get off their mailing lists: via phone, snail mail, email...repeatedly. My coworkers were aggravated in the same way. It took years, not "4-8 weeks," and then finally the mailings stopped. Or so I thought. Some time passed, and I just got another solicitation. I used to work in the field of nonprofit development. It is not that difficult to record such donor wishes in a database system. CARE deserves this negative review.

Care results do not equal the high salary This says it all.

It appears that Carter Center functions more effectively than CARE, higher % of donations to program, consistently better ratings, lower executive pay, and perhaps a better focus on opportunity for improvement. CARE can try harder. I'm switching my donation in this category to Carter Center.

As someone who does a lot with nonprofits, it is a full time job–7 days a week/24 hours a day especially with our connected world. It's also complicated. CARE has a long history of doing good. Instead of focusing on the CEO, let's focus on the accomplishments. I've worked for and with CARE for years. When there is a disaster, they are there. And involved on so many levels from policy, women's health issues, gender discrimination, maternal health, hunger, disease and more. Does anyone want to imagine a world without CARE and similar organizations. I don't. Especially where there is so much injustice and preventable diseases and things left to resolve.

I wrote this charity, explaining that I could not contribute in the near future and suggested that they could try again in two years. It had no effect. Well, I tried. If they persist, I will keep any gifts received and throw everything else away.

Let's say I am a former donor. I have been looking very closely at the salaries of the CEOs. I will not donate to CARE as long as the CEO makes $406,000. If they can afford to pay that high a salary, they don't need my money. I'll put it someplace locally.

As another reviewer has noted, CARE uses nearly 90% of donations on its programs, and it meets all of the items on the Accountability & Transparency checklist. Apparently the rating gets knocked down a star mainly due to recent negative revenue growth. As for the high CEO salary, we should observe that it's a mere 0.06% of expenses--compared with lots of other charities, this is miniscule. I'm sure heading an organization of CARE's size and scope involves a heavy workload and great expertise, and you don't get top executives cheaply. Over the years I've seen lots of evidence of CARE's good work around the globe, and I'll continue to be a donor.

I have supported CARE in the past, but with improved information, I am no longer interested in doing so. The decision to pay the CEO over $406,000 is astonishing, distressing, and inappropriate. I will not contribute to that.

CARE strives to defend the dignity of all world citizens – particularly women and girls – by working to eliminate the root causes of poverty. We know, from first-hand experience, the work that they do and have advocated alongside side them in front of government officials in Washington DC.

This org is in over 70 countries which make it one of the 1st to respond to every major disaster we've had. CARE is often engaged for partnerships because of processes, community trust & expertise.

CARE's work with women in highlighting the plight of forced marriage and child marriage is invaluable. I became interested in CARE because I care deeply about forced marriage, and of course child marriage. However, forced marriage is something that I can relate to as I have been through a forced marriage myself, and know that women the whole world over need help to end this tradition of abuse and human rights violation. A forced marriage can scar a girl for life, can put her in a situation that no-one would ever want to be in or should have to be in. My own situation even though not a child marriage, had elements of a child marriage as I was engaged at the age of 14; and felt tremendous pressure to say "yes". People do not realize the power of cultural practices and that it is not easy as a girl of any age to say "no" to one's parents. Girls every day are being forced into marriages that they are unhappy with, and this unhappiness often leads to violence; because when one or both people in a marriage are unhappy, most often this bad situation can escalate, and terrible things can happen. We are now hearing of "honor killings" a lot, and many of these killings also are due to when a girl decides to be strong and say "no". We are very often victimized, and we need help. CARE can be counted on to help stop this harmful practice, and that is why I support CARE.

Look at the bottom line: CARE gives 90% of its revenues to the needy! Wow! That's far better than a lot of the other popular charities, regardless of what they pay their leaders. Why so much focus on where 0.06% goes (top leader) but not the other 99.94%? CARE seems to focus on people that are truly needy and on projects that have long-term impact. I've been donating to CARE for many years and plan to continue.

I was about to write a check. After seeing the CEO is making $400K I decide to give the money to our local food cupboard.

the CEO deserves to be paid but $400K is excessive.

I am disappointed that the CEO makes $400,000+ a year. While the charity does do well regarding overhead costs vs program expenditures, I am more closely reviewing finances before my charitable giving. I will have to think long and hard before I donate to Care again, given reduced ratings and what I consider an unnecessarily high pay for the top administrator.

Last week we contacted CARE about the actions they are taking to improve their recent Charity Navigator ratings. CARE's response was quick and reassuring - and appears below. We plan to continue our long-term support of CARE since their efficiency is consistently 4 star and actions they have taken should help CARE regain a higher overall rating.

Response from CARE:

"Thank you for contacting CARE. Our current rating is impacted by having reduced revenue and program expenses due to two strategic decisions: to phase out monetization of food aid and to sell a microfinance institution. Our 2010 rating was affected by the fact that in the previous period we had higher revenue and expenses due to some extraordinary gifts and program expenses related to the Asian tsunami.

Aligning our programming with strategic development priorities can result in revenue and expense changes. And, like all international organizations, CARE experiences fluctuations in revenue and expense growth in response to global market forces.

It is important to remember that Charity Navigator's rating of CARE's operational efficiency consistently receives the highest possible rating, 4 stars. And CARE's excellence is recognized by accreditation from the Better Business Bureau and an A+ rating from the American Institute of Philanthropy.

Charity Navigator recognizes the limitations of its current system and is working with organizations, including CARE, to revise its system and determine new measures that will look not just at financial information but at a group's performance in relation to its objectives."

The “helping hands” logo for CARE may have served well for many years, but I believe the logo does not adequately acknowledge the commitment of the people of America to the origins and ongoing mission of CARE. This seems unfortunate in view of the widespread anti-American sentiment that has arisen in recent years, and CARE should consider redesigning the logo to better identify the principal source of its aid and perhaps appeal more directly to patriotic as well as altruistic donors. Fundraising seems uninspired. In addition, I disapprove of this non-profit paying an administrator an annual salary in excess of $400,000. CARE perhaps no longer really cares!

CARE has been included in the latest investigative report on International Aid organizations -- the Crisis Caravan. In addition, in a separate report called "Road to H-x-l-l".

While it is not the worst offenders and abusers, it certainly has comparable features. In the last three years, their Charity Navigator rating has gone from 4 stars to just 2 stars. Revenue down over 100 million, admin expense % up.

I object to CARE's advertising ... they feature the worst kind of stereotype of Africans and developing countries ... always Starving Moms and Babies, and how CARE saved the day. Some call this "development/poverty p-o-r-n".

Lastly, according to CARE's own promotional numbers, the CEO's over $400K salary alone could have provided "emergency food, which fully meets energy, vitamin, and mineral requirements" of over 160,000 children. Wow. (CARE's CEO salary is not excessive compare to other large NGOs ... which, I think, point to a systematic problem. I can bet that 95% or more the CARE donors are not living anywhere near $400K per year.)

I was a CARE donor. No longer.