Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is a global team of humanitarians, working together on the front lines of today's biggest crises to create a future of possibility, where everyone can prosper. Our mission is to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities.

We support communities – and the most marginalized within them – to emerge from crisis and build towards a more inclusive, resilient future.

Goal One: Through our programs, partnerships, and influence, we meet the basic needs of communities affected by conflict and climate change while achieving lasting, transformational change at scale.

Goal Two: We take bold action to meet the urgency of the climate emergency. We reduce climate burdens on people suffering the most - especially women and girls who experience disproportionate climate impacts.

Goal Three: We help create an inclusive culture that protects, enables, and elevates diverse individuals and groups. We foster a culture of equity, integrity, and accountability in our operations and programs.

Over the past 18 months, Mercy Corps revised and relaunched our in-person Emerging Leaders Program (ELP). During the refresh period, we also invested in our two cohorts that previously participated in the ELP online due to Covid-19; we hosted an 8 day in-person leadership training in partnership with our Portland State University program. The in-person leadership event had 48 alumni representing 33 countries. We will relaunch a refreshed ELP in-person in February 2024. We also invested in our over 500+ leadership program alumni through a year-long leadership series that included guest speakers, panels, and learning sessions dedicated to our graduates of our three flagship leadership programs - Emerging Leaders Program, Next Generation, and Women in Leadership. Lastly, in 2023 the organization made an investment in all global senior leaders by hosting an in-person global leadership gathering that focused on opportunities to share knowledge and grow leadership skills.

Conflict and climate change continue converging to rapidly drive displacement and humanitarian need globally - with a record 110 million people displaced in 2023. Yet there still lacks sustainable funding and innovative approaches to support refugees, displaced people and others most vulnerable to conflict and climate impacts. Two initiatives, the 2023 expansion of Mercy Corps’ DREAMS initiative and its new campaign aimed to raise significant funds to support climate action, demonstrate the organization’s innovation and adaptability to growing displacement and humanitarian need driven by conflict and climate. Climate: Possible: Despite conflict-affected countries facing the brunt of the humanitarian and displacement fallout from climate change, they receive the least amount of funding. And while investment in climate adaptation is trending upward across private and public sources, less than 2% – or about $500 million – of adaptation finance currently comes from private sources. Despite the headwinds of limited private financing and limited climate financing generally being directed to fragile states, in 2023 Mercy Corps launched its $250 million Climate: Possible campaign to raise funds for proactive and rapid action in the face of climate related emergencies as well as sustainable long-term solutions to build climate resilience. 2023 DREAMS expansion: DREAMS (Delivering Resilient Enterprises and Market Systems) for Refugees is a partnership that merges Mercy Corps’ expertise in market systems development with Village Enterprise’s poverty graduation program to equip refugees with the skills, resources, and market-linkages to start sustainable businesses and graduate from extreme poverty. DREAMS has been operating in Uganda since 2022 (reaching 4,800 to date), and in late 2023 DREAMS expanded to three refugee camps in Ethiopia. In total across both Uganda and Ethiopia, DREAMS will reach more than 33,000 households and impact more than 200,000 lives.