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

Hicks describes the approach as a “two-pronged thing,” where the organization responds to the public’s demands for help and information, while getting the word out to donors about what’s needed.

“To business managers, I would be less than honest if I didn’t say you have some worries about the kind of impact this is going to have on the rest of the organization over time. But I think what we’ve strived to do is to pay proper attention to an unfolding tragedy but to try to think about timing very carefully,” he says.