For nearly 50 years, Mercy Corps has worked on the front lines of the world’s most pressing challenges, helping communities respond to conflict, climate change, poverty, and crisis. Yet the humanitarian sector itself is changing rapidly.
Public trust in institutions has declined. Donors increasingly expect evidence of impact. Communities around the world are demanding greater agency in shaping their own futures. At the same time, Mercy Corps had evolved beyond the role many people associated with its name. While the organization continued to respond to emergencies, its work increasingly focused on helping communities build the resilience needed to cope, adapt, and ultimately thrive.
Research conducted over more than a decade revealed that the Mercy Corps name was creating barriers to awareness and understanding. It carried associations that did not reflect the organization’s values, created confusion with similarly named organizations, and lacked resonance across many of the languages and cultures where the organization operates.
Mercy Corps engaged Brand Federation and Chermayeff &Geismar & Haviv to help align its identity with both its evolving mission and the future it sought to create.
The engagement began with a global exploration of the organization’s culture, strategy, and stakeholders. Research included more than 1,300 employees, 6,000 prospective donors across the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe, as well as program participants, partners, and community leaders around the world. The team also examined broader cultural forces influencing the humanitarian sector, including declining trust in institutions, growing crisis fatigue, and increasing demand for locally led solutions.
Rather than beginning with a search for a new name, thework focused on identifying the organization’s core conviction.
Across audiences, a consistent belief emerged: every person and every community deserves the opportunity to shape its future and thrive.
That insight became the foundation for a new narrative,visual identity, and naming strategy.
The naming process explored multiple strategic territories and included extensive linguistic and cultural testing in more than 60 language markets, as well as comprehensive trademark review across key jurisdictions worldwide.
The result was Prosper Global.
The name expresses the organization’s conviction that prosperity is not a privilege reserved for a few communities, but an opportunity that should be available to all. As Mercy Corps CEO Tjada D’Oyen McKenna stated during the launch, “Our new name puts our purpose front and center — and reinforces our intention to connect, collaborate, and grow our impact across the globe". It reflects the belief that "when every community can prosper, humanity moves forward together.”
Supported by a new visual identity from Chermayeff &Geismar & Haviv, the rebrand provides a clearer, more globally resonant platform for engaging donors, partners, employees, and communities around the world.
More importantly, it aligns the organization’s external identity with the future it is working to create—a future where communities move beyond crisis toward resilience, opportunity, and lasting prosperity.
Prosper Global is more than a new name. It is the articulation of a conviction that now unites the organization’s strategy, culture, story, and aspirations for the future.
It’s been an absolute privilege to work together on this rebrand.
I truly believe the collaborative spirit of our partnership elevated the outcome. We loved every minute working with Brand Federation and Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, and we are so excited to see Prosper Global come to life later in 2026.
