Carrying On Without a ‘Founder’s Magic’: the Carter Center
On the heels of Jimmy Carter’s death, the organization he founded faced funding cuts and a future without his guidance. Here’s how it navigated the risks.
By Rasheeda Childress
Senior Editor, Fundraising
March 12, 2026 | Read Time: 3 minutes
President Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center are so deeply connected, it’s hard to remove the man from the mission. When Carter died in the last days of 2024, the center had to balance mourning the loss of its iconic leader and charting a new course without him.
The center’s plight isn’t unique, says Susanna Kislenko, who heads the Founder Leadership Research Lab at the University of Oxford. Founders bring “unspoken magic” to an organization, and when they leave it can be a pivotal point for an organization.
It’s important to preserve the qualities that first inspired people to fall in love with the organization, Kislenko says. Leaders must figure out how to keep the ethos and stay true to the founder’s inspirational vision.
On the heels of Carter’s death, the center also had to adapt to the Trump administration’s funding cuts, which Nicole Kruse, the center’s vice president of development, describes as “unprecedented and unforeseen changes that have directly impacted our primary areas of work: our peace programs and our health programs.”
Kruse, who has been fundraising for the center for more than two decades, says it is committed to ensuring Carter’s values shape its plans for the future.
Staying Focused on Key Priorities
Early in 2025, the organization lost its federal grants, which accounted for 11 percent of its funding, Kruse says. While it was a shock that many groups faced, the experience was further complicated by having to answer donors’ questions about the shifting funding landscape at events celebrating Carter’s life and legacy, says Kruse.
Leaders took the time to reinforce the legacy of Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, Kruse says, reminding donors that “we wage peace, we fight disease, and we build hope. We want to address the needs of the most vulnerable people in our world because those were the Carters’ values.”
Leaders decided to focus on two key strategic priorities: addressing river blindness, a parasitic infection, and building democracy throughout the world, Kruse says.
Seeking New Sources of Support
Because the federal funding cuts struck a blow to the center’s ability to fight river blindness in Central and South America, the center had to find new ways to fund this work. So the center joined the Reaching the Last Mile Fund, a coalition battling the disease.
The Carter Center has also tapped its corporate partners, and last year forged an agreement with drug maker Merck to contribute 28 million doses of Mectizan, the primary treatment for river blindness.
Meanwhile, as federal funding for democracy work has declined, the center has stepped up efforts to attract individual donations for this work, especially from donor-advised funds.
Looking to the Future
The center is also looking for ways to connect with young supporters. “The work that we do transcends generations. I have a lot of hope in the younger generation. And I think they recognize clearly that our mission and our values are strong,” Kruse says.
Kinslenko at the University of Oxford notes that certain values are timeless and will appeal to people of all generations. After Carter’s death, she notes, young people on social media were praising Carter and his efforts to improve the world. The key is to keep those values — and a founder’s legacy — alive through the organization they established.
