Mercy Corps

From 2021 through early 2026, the United States government issued 176 grants to Mercy Corps, totaling $948,120,760. ³ Mercy Corps has also received funding from private grantmaking organizations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, ^{4 5 6 7 8 9}

Mercy Corps co-founder Ellsworth Culver was accused of sexual abuse by his daughter, Tania Culver Humphrey, and committing “severe sexual and physical abuse” against a nine-year-old girl. Culver Humphrey alleged that she was taken to Thailand to be abused by her father and other men while she was a child. She told investigators the girl of approximately nine years old was killed by her abusers while in Thailand. The Oregonian, a daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, published findings of a ten-month investigation into Humphrey’s claims in 2019, which found support for her claims. ^{10 11}

After the Oregonian report, Mercy Corps’ then-CEO Neal Keny-Guyer acknowledged that the group had “failed her with our response” to Culver Humphrey’s attempts to detail her allegations to Mercy Corps. ¹² Culver Humphrey later filed a lawsuit alleging “intentional infliction of emotional distress” by Mercy Corps for actions the group took related to the abuse allegations. In 2024, Culver Humphrey and Mercy Corps reached a private settlement out of court. ^{13 14}

In 2025, following the second Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) funding freezes and cuts to federal foreign aid programs, Mercy Corps had $125 million in funding and 40 of its 60 U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded projects frozen or canceled. ^{15  16}

Background

Mercy Corps is an international humanitarian-aid organization that prioritizes providing aid to communities that have been affected by natural or man-made disasters and crises. The organization was founded in 1979 as Save the Refugees Fund, organized by Dan O’Neill in response to refugees from Cambodia fleeing the genocide caused by the Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot and the subsequent war between the regime and Vietnam that led to its overthrow. The organization expanded internationally by 1982 and O’Neill was joined by Ellsworth Culver, who initiated the renaming of the organization to Mercy Corps. ¹⁷

Mercy Corps’ focus changed from providing short-term relief to those affected by disaster to long-term solutions to poverty and hunger. The organization began its first development project in Honduras in 1982. ¹⁷

The organization claims it has a team of more than 5,400 members who provide immediate relief and aid in more than 40 countries around the world. ¹⁸

Mercy Corps partners with multiple foundations and corporations, which it lists on its website. The corporate partners include Starbucks, Mastercard, Cisco, the Zurich Foundation, Xylem, Ripple, TripAdvisor, and Microsoft. ¹⁹

Activities

Mercy Corps maintains several initiatives, including emergency response services, clean water projects, food supply initiatives, and economic development programs across Africa, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the Caribbean. ^{1  20  21} In 2025 and 2026, Mercy Corps provided support for Ukrainians displaced by the Russia-Ukraine war, Syrians fleeing civil war, and Gazans affected by the Israel-Hamas war. ^{22  23  24}

In 2025, Mercy Corps announced the launch of an artificial intelligence tool, AI Methods Matcher, which the group uses to plan aid projects, track spending and aid distribution, and make decisions during emergency response situations. ²⁵

Impact of Trump Administration USAID Cuts

In January 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that froze and cut funding to several foreign aid programs, most notably the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). ²⁶ Mercy Corps received substantial funding from USAID and other government grants and opposed the move by the Trump administration. ^{27  3  28}

In 2024 alone, Mercy Corps received 38 percent (about $250 million) of its total revenue that year from USAID grants. Mercy Corps CEO Tjada D’Oyen McKenna warned that the funding freeze and cancellation of USAID programs would affect tens of thousands of people across Ethiopia and Liberia, where Mercy Corps distributed food and water with USAID funding. ²⁸

In April 2025, Mercy Corps announced that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had cut nearly $125 million in USAID grants intended for the group, forcing the group to sell its headquarters building in Portland, Oregon and lay off employees. ¹⁵ During an April 2025 podcast appearance, Mercy Corps chief development officer Mary State claimed DOGE had cut 40 of Mercy Corps’ 60 USAID-backed projects. ¹⁶

Controversy

Ellsworth Culver Sexual Abuse Allegations

Mercy Corps co-founder Ellsworth Culver was accused of committing “severe sexual and physical abuse” against a nine-year-old girl in Thailand, according to his daughter Tania Culver Humphrey. Culver Humphrey further alleged that she was taken to Thailand as a child to be abused by her father and other men. She told investigators that the girl of approximately nine years old was killed by her abusers while in Thailand. ¹⁰

Culver Humphrey reported her abuse to Mercy Corps in the 1990s, although she stated the abuse started in the 1970s. Mercy Corps did not act on the accusations, and instead of removing Culver from the organization, Mercy Corps demoted him and informed him about the allegations made by his daughter. ¹⁰

Culver Humphrey requested that Mercy Corps re-examine her accusations in 2018, but the organization stated there was “insufficient evidence.” The Oregonian, a daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, published findings of a ten-month investigation into Humphrey’s claims in 2019, which found support for her claims. ^{10 11}

According to another investigation in 2021, Culver Humphrey spoke with investigators for more than 100 hours, during which she provided in-depth details of her abuse, including “trips she took, people she associated with, places she and Mr. Culver visited, 9 dates, and geographic locations.” Investigators also reviewed two child-abuse reports filed by Humphrey with the state of Oregon and hundreds of pages of personal records. Friends from Culver Humphrey’s childhood were contacted and corroborated her story to investigators. ¹⁰

The report stated that Culver gave inconsistent explanations for the allegations and “allegedly took a polygraph” test, arranged by Mercy Corps board member Robert Newell, however “no records of a polygraph were found” by investigators, including the name and credentials of the polygrapher’s identity, questions asked, and results. ^{29 30}

Mercy Corps executive director Tjada D’Oyen McKenna stated after the report was released that the organization “unreservedly” believes Humphrey and that Mercy Corps “deeply regrets” its inaction. McKenna also stated that the organization acknowledges “this ugly piece of our history, but this will not be our legacy.” ¹⁰

Culver Humphrey later filed a lawsuit alleging “intentional infliction of emotional distress” by Mercy Corps for actions the group took related to the abuse allegations, seeking $54 million in punitive damages against Mercy Corps. ^{13 31} In May 2024, Culver Humphrey and Mercy Corps settled the lawsuit out of court; neither side released the specific details of the settlement. ¹⁴

Leadership

As of 2026, Tjada D’Oyen McKenna was the chief executive officer of Mercy Corps. Previously, she worked as chief operating officer of CARE International and as a senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. McKenna also previously worked as the Deputy Coordinator of Development for Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative under President Barack Obama. She also served as the Assistant to the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Bureau for Food Security and held various roles at McKinsey & Company, American Express, Habitat for Humanity International, and General Electric. As of 2026, McKenna was sitting on the Climate Migration Council and is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and her MBA from Harvard Business School. ^{32  33}

As of 2026, Ludovic Subran was the chair of the board of directors at Mercy Corps. At the time, he was the chief economist of Allianz. He previously worked for the World Bank, the United Nations World Food Program, and the French Ministry of Finance. As of 2026, Subran was a Member of the Council of Economic Advisors to the Prime Minister of France, a young global leader of the World Economic Forum, a millennium fellow of the Atlantic Council, and a David Rockefeller fellow of the Trilateral Commission. He is an adjunct professor of economics at HEC Business School and Sciences Po Paris. ³⁴

Financials

In 2024, Mercy Corps reported $465,535,442 in total revenue, $475,086,766 in total expenses, and $296,610,081 in total assets. That year, Mercy Corps received $320,029,027 in government grants (approximately 69 percent of its revenue). ²⁷ This marked a nearly 11 percent decrease in annual revenue from 2023 when the group reported $521,972,189 in total revenue. In 2023, Mercy Corps received $400,715,127 in government grants (approximately 77 percent of its revenue). ³⁵

From 2021 through early 2026, the United States government issued 176 grants to Mercy Corps totaling $948,120,760. $896,380,948 of the total government grant money (nearly 95 percent) came from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). ³

Mercy Corps has also received extensive funding from several left-of-center grantmaking foundations. From 2000 through 2026, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation issued at least 50 grants to Mercy Corps, totaling $81,105,855. ³⁶

From 2004 through 2026, the Carnegie Corporation of New York issued 18 grants to Mercy Corps, totaling $5,651,000. ³⁷ From 2006 through 2016, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation issued three grants to Mercy Corps, totaling $1,050,000. ³⁸ In 2017, the Ford Foundation issued $251,500 in grants to Mercy Corps. ⁴