[4] Twenty-two members from the American Council of Voluntary Agencies for Foreign Service met to ratify the articles of incorporation for CARE to Europe.

After pressure from the public and Congress, President Harry S. Truman agreed to let private organizations provide relief for those starving due to the war.

[7] CARE was initially a consortium of twenty-two U.S. charities (a mixture of civic, religious, cooperative, farm, and labour organizations) to deliver food aid to Europe in the aftermath of World War II.

[8] The first CARE Packages were in fact surplus "Ten-in-One" US army rations packs (designed to contain a day's meals for ten people).

[4] In early 1946 CARE purchased 2.8 million of these warehoused rations packs, originally intended for the invasion of Japan, and began advertising in America.

[8] These packages contained staples such as canned meats, powdered milk, dried fruits, and fats along with a few comfort items such as chocolate, coffee, and cigarettes.

[8] 1949 also marked CARE's first expansion into non-food aid with the development of "self-help" packages containing tools for farming, carpentry, and other trades.

[17] Twenty-two of CARE's forty-two missions were closed, mostly in European countries, and efforts were concentrated on food distribution and emergency response in the developing world.

In order to reflect these new broader aims, in 1959 CARE changed the meaning of its acronym a second time, becoming the "Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere".

[20] The concept was also revived in 2011 as an online campaign encouraging donors to fill a "virtual CARE Package" with food aid and services such as education and healthcare.

CARE's programmes during this era focused largely on the construction of schools and nutrition centres, and the continued distribution of food.

Projects became increasingly multi-faceted, providing for example not only health education but also access to clean water and an agricultural program to improve nutrition.

A 1977 project for example provided for the construction of over 200 pre-schools and kindergartens throughout Chile over several years, jointly funded by CARE and the Chilean Ministry of Education.

[26][27][28] Along with broader development work CARE's projects in the 1980s and early 1990s focused particularly on agroforestry initiatives such as reforestation and soil conservation in eastern Africa and South America.

In the early 1990s CARE adopted a household livelihood security framework which included a multidimensional view of poverty as encompassing not only physical resources but also social position and human capacities.

In the 2021 Fall of Kabul after American troops withdrawal, and the fear to women and girls, caused by the Taliban takeover of government, CARE's deputy country director, Marianne O'Grady was reported as saying that women would continue educating their families and neighbours, even 'behind the walls', compared to the regime 25 years ago, despite Taliban rules.

This model is called the Village Savings and Loans Associations and it began in 1991 as a pilot project run by CARE's Country Office in Niger.

[32] The model has also been widely replicated in Africa and Asia and by other large NGOs including Oxfam, Plan International, and Catholic Relief Services.

[33] CARE UK later launched lendwithcare.org, which allows members of the public to make microloans, including green loans, to entrepreneurs in Africa and Asia.

In 1993 CARE, to reflect its international organizational structure, changed the meaning of its acronym for a third time, adopting its current name the "Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere".

[35] CARE's well-known "I am Powerful" campaign launched in the US in September 2006 and was intended to bring public attention to the organization's long-standing focus on women's empowerment.

[38] CARE also announced that it would no longer accept USDA food through Title 1 (concessional sales) or Section 416 (surplus disposal) because these programs are intended mainly to establish a commercial advantage for US agriculture.

The secretariat is based in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices in New York City and in Brussels to liaise with the United Nations and European institutions, respectively.

The breakdown by region was as follows:[2] For the fiscal year 2016, CARE reported a budget of more than 574 million Euros and a staff of 9,175 (94% of them local citizens of the country where they work).

CARE's core sectors for emergency response are Food Security, Shelter, WASH and Sexual & Reproductive Health.