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Published
February 10, 2026
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SUMMARY:
Thriving societies are sustained by a robust, publicly funded care infrastructure in which workers have paid family and medical leave, children benefit from early care and education, older adults and people with disabilities live independently with safety and dignity, and care work is respected and well-compensated. Recently, Eesha Bhave, Senior Program Officer of Gender and Reproductive Equity Grantmaking at Schusterman Family Philanthropies, spoke with Anna Wadia, Executive Director of the Care For All with Respect and Equity (CARE) Fund, about the role care plays in our ecosystem and the benefits of strengthening support for and access to care through pooled funding and collaborative giving.
The following excerpts from their conversation have been edited for clarity.
1. The CARE Fund is celebrating its fifth anniversary. As you reflect on this milestone, can you share how the fund began, what inspired its creation and an overview of the work your team has led?
The CARE Fund was born five years ago out of the COVID-19 pandemic, which ripped the invisibility cloak off the care economy and made undeniable what advocates had long known: care is essential for families to thrive and for a healthy economy. Yet our public and corporate policies, and the legacy of devaluing care, turn this fundamental act of love and humanity into a challenge that families are expected to navigate on their own.
To address the gap between the care families need and the dignified jobs care workers deserve, a movement emerged like never before: one that seeks to build the power and political muscle necessary to win bold public investments in early care and education, paid leave, aging and disability care and quality jobs for care workers. Inspired by this movement, Schusterman, the Ford Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation came together in 2021 to launch the CARE Fund.
Since then, we are proud to have leveraged almost $50 million from 22 foundations and individuals to drive impact through nearly 70 grants and provide learning and networking opportunities for funders and advocates. The CARE Fund uses its unique vantage point to expand capacity and build resilience among national coalitions and movement-building networks working to defend baseline care programs and advance robust universal policies.
We also spot trends on the horizon and resource efforts to collectively address them. For example, last year, we brought together advocates working on behalf of children, older adults, people with disabilities, workers’ rights, and tax equity to organize against cutting Medicaid and other vital care programs to finance tax breaks for the wealthy; we invested in strategies to address the detrimental impact of private equity on childcare and home care; and we strengthened efforts to help people view reproductive rights through the lens of freedom and family, which helped drive greater civic engagement.
The CARE Fund uses its unique vantage point to expand capacity and build resilience among national coalitions and movement-building networks working to defend baseline care programs and advance robust new policies.
2. The CARE Fund sees philanthropic collaboration as a powerful way to build cohesion and capacity across the care movement. How does pooled funding achieve this? What are the advantages of this funding model, and what should funders understand about its value as a complement to direct giving?
Through our pooled funding model, the CARE Fund convenes funders and grantees from across the care continuum to break down silos and strengthen the movement's connective tissue for the long term.Our grantees know care is bigger than any one issue. They work in coalitions across childcare, aging, disability, worker, reproductive and immigrant justice, because that’s what this moment requires. Nationally and in our focus states, New Mexico and Michigan, we combine support for coalition tables with direct grants to coalition partners—especially constituencies with fewer resources, such as organizations representing people with disabilities or native communities. This assures these organizations can fully engage in the care movement and bring their perspectives and power to the table.
Foundations, however, cannot always fund across issues and constituencies, putting pressure on grantees and movements to fragment their work. The CARE Fund serves as a countervailing force to philanthropy's silos, educating funders, bringing new partners into the movement and making it easier to fund care as a unified ecosystem.
Our funding partners tell us that exposure to the full care continuum and seeing the way their investments shape the broader care landscape have influenced their own grantmaking strategies.
The CARE Fund serves as a countervailing force to philanthropy's silos, educating funders, bringing new partners into the movement and making it easier to fund care as a unified ecosystem.
3. There has been tremendous progress in the care movement over the last decade. Which wins are you still celebrating, and how have they changed the landscape of care policy and advocacy in the U.S. today?
Our grantmaking helped propel unprecedented accomplishments, including historic investments through the American Rescue Plan Act and a landmark Executive Order on care. The care movement’s unrelenting organizing, advocacy and communications savvy produced a sea of change in the way the public, media and policymakers understand and prioritize care. Previously, the ability to access quality care was seen only as an individual’s moral success or failure. Now, after the movement’s investments and coordinated efforts, more of the country sees it as the direct result of local and national policy decisions.
As political winds have shifted, we have helped coalitions broaden and strengthen. For example, the cross-issue coalitions we fund have kept the needs of caregivers and the people they support at the heart of policy conversations, as funding for Medicaid, Social Security, Head Start and SNAP is cut or threatened.
At the state level, grantees have protected and won expanded paid leave, childcare and long-term care policies benefiting millions of families and care workers. From New Mexico to Washington state, voters are proving that universal care policies are both possible and popular. We have been proud to contribute to broad coalitions that won the first-ever universal childcare system in New Mexico, restored collective bargaining rights to over 30,000 care workers in Michigan and protected the first-ever state-managed long-term care program in Washington.
4. How are you thinking about the next phase of the CARE Fund’s work or mission? In what ways will the fund evolve or further solidify its strategies from the past five years?
The CARE Fund’s theory of change has always been grounded in the need for solidarity across constituencies for care. Our flexible support is now enabling the care movement to act in even deeper solidarity with movements for immigrant, disability, reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights. The universality of care can uniquely mobilize broad, diverse coalitions across race, class, geography and sectors to demand public investment in equitable systems that meet the needs of workers and families. At this moment of existential threat to our democracy and communities, this cross-movement solidarity is essential to protect bedrock care programs, fuel future care policy wins and create a bulwark against authoritarianism.
The care movement sees this period of existential challenge as an opportunity to turn crisis into action and build an even broader, more powerful base. Our past investments in narrative and culture change are helping more people see publicly-funded care programs as key to addressing the affordability crisis. The care movement is embracing opportunities and new partnerships to create a welcoming tent. It stands with rural residents losing access to health care and senior services, and with parents priced out of child care. It also stands with child care providers and school administrators who are appalled by the attacks on immigrant workers, parents and children—and by their disappearances from our communities.
The care movement is broader, more connected and more powerful than ever. Through ongoing dialogue with people across the country about what they need and deserve, the care agenda will continue to shape our vision for a just and multiracial democracy.
Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies welcomes the expression of personal thoughts and reflections in Toward, our digital magazine. Each article reflects the opinion of its author and does not necessarily represent the views of our organization or our partners.
