CARE USA shifts into fundraising overdrive when disaster strikes, but its day-to-day development plan keeps it at the forefront of humanitarian-aid organizations.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

“And we’re going to honor that,” he says. “We increasingly try to get more focused on the donor and what the donor wants and how the donor wants to deal with our organization … to treat donors less according to how much they give, and more according to how they want to be treated.”

Supporting this donor-centric approach is CARE’s effort to break down walls between communication channels (for example, prefacing the drop of a direct-mail campaign with a pre-recorded 20-second phone message from CARE President Peter Bell) and also to integrate the organization’s planned and major-gifts programs to create a seamless long-term experience for donors.