Transparency and accountability is something we hold dear at CARE and an issue we know is important to all our supporters.  Here are a few things about us that we think you’ll find of interest.

Have an idea on how we can do better?  Get in touch.

Interested in how CARE International around the world holds a core commitment to be accountable, principled and transparent in the global fight against poverty?  Then download our Accountable Now report.

Supporter Pledge

We make this pledge to our supporters:

• We will spend your donation wisely, carefully, and thoughtfully, always asking how we can maximise its impact and through asking ourselves ‘is this what our supporters would want’.
• We will always respect your privacy; if you want to change the frequency or way in how we contact you, please let us know.
• We will always protect your data; we do not sell your personal details or swap them with any other organisation.
• We will be honest with you.  Tackling global poverty can be complex and face many challenges, but we will always strive to learn and improve.
• We have a supporter care team who are dedicated to you. We always love to hear from you.
• We will share stories of how your support is helping to change lives for the better
• We are accountable to the people we reach through your support.  Those in poverty are our equal partners, not merely recipients of aid.  Their voice is loud and heard through genuine active involvement in the work we do.
• We protect the dignity of vulnerable people in all countries and have a Vulnerable Contacts Policy to protect supporters here in Australia.
• We choose carefully which companies we would, or would not, associate with, working with a globally agreed Private Sector Engagement process to ask ourselves the right questions.
• We are committed to preventing, detecting and correcting fraud, misappropriations, discrimination, sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, support of terrorism, and other wrongful conduct. If you suspect or have observed or experienced, wrongful conduct you can report your concern online or by phone.

CARE Values

• We respect and value diversity.
• We respect, value and seek to enhance local capacities.
• We value and support the central role of women in development.
• We recognise and value the professionalism, skills and experience of our staff, and their contribution to institutional learning and development.
• We value CARE’s dynamism, adaptability and resilience.
• We value the support of our donors and program partners.

We value the operational freedom, which stems from being a not-for-profit Australian agency which is independent of any religious or political affiliation and which does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, age, religion or politics.

An accredited and sanctioned not-for-profit

As a registered charity, CARE is fully accredited by Australia’s aid program – Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade  (Australian Aid) and adheres to its stringent standards of accountability.

CARE is a signatory to the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) Code of Conduct which sets out standards on how organisations should be managed, how they communicate and how they spend the funds they raise. CARE is also a signatory to several international codes of conduct (full details on our Codes of conduct page).

CARE Australia is externally audited every year by Ernst & Young. CARE is also a member of Accountable Now, a global platform that supports charities to be transparent, responsive to stakeholders and focused on delivering impact.

We have endorsement by the Australian Taxation Office as a Deductible Gift Recipient, as an income tax exempt charity and a proud member of the Fundraising Institute of Australia. We are also proud to be an accredited member of the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association, having demonstrated our commitment to high standards in areas of public fundraising.

Forward Accountability

To ensure that we practice what we preach, CARE is committed to continually improving its accountability to both our donors and especially to the people whose lives we seek to improve and in whose name we raise funds.

Throughout our site, our name ‘CARE’ is used to reflect our lifesaving work across the world. Our network includes 14 federation members working in over 94 countries. Please refer to our Annual Report for a more detailed list of the multiple programs CARE Australia directly manages.

CARE Australia is responsible for supporting CARE’s country offices and their governance to enable the communities we work with to hold us accountable. Known as ‘forward accountability’ or social accountability, this approach aims to put our primary stakeholders – the people and communities whom we seek to assist – at the very heart of our work.

The aim is to enable project participants to genuinely understand and influence the programs from which they ought to benefit, and in this way hold CARE accountable. We work to ensure the active involvement of participants (people and communities), and provide opportunities for feedback and dialogue between CARE and our participants, at all stages of our program and project cycles (planning, implementation and evaluation).