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Blockchain and Crypto at CARE

A woman wearing a light teal headscarf smiles while scrolling through a smartphone. Behind her are a group of women wearing facemasks and looking at her phone.

Safoura Doby/CARE

Safoura Doby/CARE

Economic Growth

“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. We welcome 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

CARE has been exploring how emerging technologies like blockchain, distributed ledgers, and digital assets can help meet the needs of the world’s most at-risk people and meet our 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 used 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 grow this pilot program to build financial stability 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 receive health services. We now seek to grow 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.

Learn more

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

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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

For more information about using blockchain and crypto to drive social impact

Please contact Alejandra Villalobos, Associate Vice President, Major Gifts for CARE, at alejandra.villalobos@care.org.

Donate cryptocurrency to CARE

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