Introducing the Impact Alliance
Global needs are rising. Resources are shrinking. The aid sector needs new ways to reach more people, reduce duplication, and support locally led solutions.
The Impact Alliance brings together three of the world’s leading international humanitarian organizations — Mercy Corps, CARE, and Save The Children — to work in a more connected, efficient, and locally led way.
Together, these three organizations have a powerful collective reach: $3.5 billion in funding, 36,000 staff, 4,000 partners, and programs in 110 countries reaching 200 million people.
What is the Impact Alliance?
The Alliance began when CEOs Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Michelle Nunn, and Janti Soeripto came together around a shared belief that deeper collaboration can help the sector deliver greater impact, accelerate innovation, and better support locally led solutions at scale.
Each organization remains independent, with its own mission, leadership, programs, and operational footprint. Through the Alliance, we are working together where collaboration adds value.
This includes:
- Aligning investments and innovation efforts
- Sharing select systems and services where efficiency can be improved
- Expanding joint approaches to locally led solutions
- Accelerating learning and scaling what works
The goal is simple: achieve more together than any one organization could do alone — while maintaining the distinct strengths of each partner.
Why now?
Conflict, a changing climate, and economic instability are driving greater needs while funding is becoming more constrained. At the same time, traditional ways of delivering aid have not kept pace with the scale and complexity of today’s challenges.
The Impact Alliance is a response to that gap.
By working together, we aim to reduce duplication, scale proven approaches, and direct more resources to where they are needed most. This Alliance is still evolving, but it represents an important step toward a more connected, effective, and locally led humanitarian system.
How we’re working together
The Impact Alliance is starting with areas where collaboration can improve how aid is delivered and create a foundation for sustainable change. Current areas of focus include:
- Collaborative procurement: We are pooling purchasing power to reduce costs, improve supplier quality, and build more resilient procurement systems across the humanitarian and development sector. We are also exploring AI-driven analytics to identify savings opportunities, track return on investment, and strengthen supplier performance.
- Scaling proven interventions: We are partnering with governments and local organizations to embed and scale evidence-based solutions within national systems. The goal is to expand access to proven interventions and support long-term results for millions of people.
- Community insights: We are improving how we gather and use real-time input from the people we serve. This means moving beyond one-way feedback models toward continuous, two-way engagement that helps communities generate, use, and act on their own insights and priorities.
- Innovation and AI: We are exploring how AI, digital platforms, and other tools can improve program delivery, increase efficiency, and expand access to information. Current areas of work include community asset mapping, real-time insight synthesis, dashboarding, early warning systems, and data-driven analysis.
These efforts are in the early stages and will continue to evolve as the Alliance learns, grows, and identifies new opportunities to create greater impact together.
Join the conversation
Read the joint op-ed in Devex, in which the three CEOs explain why the Alliance was created and how it can help reshape the future of aid.
Watch this conversation with the three CEOs on a Council of Foreign Relations panel where they discuss the origin and goals of the Impact Alliance.