Annual Report 2022

Celebrating a nation of Welcomers

This past year has proven that when we open up the resettlement system and invite the participation of every part of America—from corporations to civic organizations to everyday people—we tap into the best of America, and a reservoir of welcome that far expands what government systems can do on their own.

As increasing conflict, climate change, violence, and oppression drive ever more people to flee their homes, we envision an America that gives people in need of refuge access to safety, security, and the chance to rebuild their lives and achieve their human potential.

How it started

Welcome.US was created in response to an extraordinary challenge: resettling close to 100,000 Afghan allies fleeing Taliban-controlled Afghanistan with a government system that had welcomed just over 11,000 refugees the year before. A mere six months later, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove millions of Ukrainians to flee their homes. We needed to build a system that could not only meet the specific challenges brought on by these crises, but one with durable capacity and the resilience to meet the next moment of crisis that we know will inevitably come. We needed a whole-of-society response; a truly American effort.

Welcome.US is the story of how the American people rose to meet an unprecedented challenge: this is what we’ve built together in our first year.

Watch a video retrospective .

Innovating solutions with the private sector

As the private sector partner of the U.S. government, Welcome.US created diverse points of entry for corporate engagement. Our CEO Council brings together nearly 40 of the country’s most iconic companies to innovate new solutions to meet the tangible needs of newcomers at scale—modernizing the resettlement system to grow capacity. These efforts have yielded millions of dollars worth of donated goods and services, but are also vastly expanding systems for newcomer employment, providing household supplies, accessing legal services, and sponsorship.

Private sector partners also are helping to grow participation in welcoming by sharing calls to action with employees and consumers. Employees of participating corporations also are invited to become Welcomers as volunteers at legal clinics, hiring fairs, or community-based organizations focused on local resettlement; or by helping to raise awareness about the work of Welcome.US and sponsorship. The combined workforce of CEO Council member organizations constitutes millions of employees who have the potential of being Welcomers in their local communities: they are a crucial component of the welcome movement.

Bringing communities into the resettlement system

This year, Welcome.US partnered with the U.S. government to help relieve pressure on the traditional resettlement system—which consists of just nine heroic refugee resettlement agencies—by allowing everyday people to assume responsibility for a newly-arrived family in their community. Americans seized that opportunity: over 800 Afghans were directly sponsored by everyday Americans in groups of five or more through the Sponsor Circles program and by iconic service organizations like Samaritan’s Purse, Islamic Relief USA, Lions Club, and others who mobilized their memberships to support newcomers.

The success of those efforts later served as the blueprint for the Uniting for Ukraine program, which allows Americans to directly sponsor Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion and makes it possible for them to find safety and refuge in the United States. Now, six months since the launch of that program Americans signed up to sponsor more refugees than the U.S. government has admitted in the last five fiscal years combined.

The Welcome Movement

Over the course of this year, we’ve not only added much-needed capacity to our existing systems, we’ve started building a more engaged, more politically and geographically diverse, and more durable movement of welcome in America. It’s a movement that transcends real or perceived political, religious, geographic, ethnic, or other divides. Our call to action has resonated with Americans everywhere, in every community, and of every background because it encompasses what Americans are already doing every day: Being good neighbors. Helping those in need. Serving our communities.

Civic organizations as diverse as Lions Clubs International, Samaritan's Purse, Islamic Relief USA, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, veteran-led Team Rubicon, refugee-led Viets for Afghans, and hundreds of community organizations have all become new players in the work of welcome.