National Alliance for Caregiving: 30 Years of Advancing Caregiving
Honoring Our Past, Building What Comes Next
For 30 years, the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) has worked to make caregiving visible, valued, and supported.
In 1996, Gail Gibson Hunt convened five national organizations to meet the needs of family caregivers in an aging America. Working with USAging, the American Society on Aging, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, GlaxoSmithKline, and the National Council of Aging, the National Alliance for Caregiving began as a coalition working to quantify the impact of the largest unpaid workforce in American society.
While the nation had begun to examine the need for long-term family caregiving, it had not yet become a topic of national conversation. Yet friends and family were quietly supporting people in their lives with disabilities and health care needs, largely unrecognized in policy, research, or public life. For many, managing complex care at home or in the community with little guidance, little support, and almost no visibility was the norm.
NAC set out to change the conversation by building the research and infrastructure needed to take caregiving seriously in scientific and policymaking circles. Since our founding, NAC has brought family caregiving into focus, including young caregivers, veterans’ families, and those caring for loved ones with complex or chronic conditions.
NAC research and advocacy have underlaid major legislative milestones for the caregiving community. From the National Family Caregiver Support Program, passed into law in 2000, to the Lifespan Respite Program, the VA Family Caregiver Assistance Program, the VA Mission Act, the RAISE Family Caregivers Act and Council, and ongoing efforts for paid family and medical leave, NAC is at the table for families who need a voice in Washington.
Today, more than 63 million Americans provide care to a family member or loved one, providing an estimated $1.01 trillion of labor care. Many family caregivers are balancing jobs, health challenges, and financial strain. Caregiving used to be something families handled quietly, out of view. Today, caregiving is visible
on Capitol Hill, in hospital boardrooms, and in the news, thanks to advocates and organizations that engage with NAC.
Caregiving is now part of the national conversation. The work ahead is making sure the systems around caregivers catch up
Caregiving is the work that makes all other work possible.
30 Years by the Numbers
Our Focus for Three Decades
Caregiving didn’t take its place in the national conversation on its own. It took consistent research, policy work, and coalition building by groups like NAC to get it there. Now it’s a regular topic in Congress, health systems, and in HR departments.
With foundational research such as Caregiving in the US, Cancer Caregiving in the US, and Home Alone: Family Caregivers Providing Complex Care, NAC helped answer basic questions no one had fully addressed before by defining who caregivers are, what they take on, and what it costs them financially, physically, and emotionally to care.
Our work changed how caregivers are counted, understood, and responded to by institutions. Over time, it led to real movement:
- The first national caregiving dataset (1997), now the standard for the field, with subsequent iterations in 2004, 2009, 2015, 2020, and 2025
- The RAISE Family Caregivers Act (2018), the first federal law focused on caregivers
- A national caregiving strategy (2022), shaped across 15 federal agencies
As America ages and the demographics of the American family continue to evolve, our work will continue to champion:
- Maintaining a national standard for tracking caregiving data
- Advancing bipartisan policy solutions
- Increasing federal investment in caregiver support
- Scaling local efforts into national and global coalitions
- Expanding recognition of caregivers across healthcare and workplaces
NAC’s research is widely used by policymakers, health systems, employers, and advocates working to turn awareness into action.
The number of caregivers has grown by nearly 50% in just the past decade.
Leadership Through the Years
Gail Gibson Hunt (1996–2018)
Gail Hunt built NAC from the ground up, turning a little-recognized issue into a national field of research and advocacy. Her leadership helped establish caregiving as something that could be studied, measured, and acted on. Gail launched the Caregiving in the U.S. research series with AARP, supported the passage of the National Family Caregiver Support Program and the VA Family Caregiver Assistance Program, and the Lifespan Respite Act. A respected global thought leader, Gail founded the International Alliance of Carer Organizations and hosted a global congress on caregiving.
C. Grace Whiting (2018–2021)
C. Grace Whiting stepped in at a moment of transition and growth, expanding NAC’s reach and sharpening its role in policy, research, and cross-sector collaboration. Grace’s team supported the passage of the RAISE Family Caregivers Act, advocating for the legislation in major media outlets such as C-SPAN and through NAC’s coalition network. Grace expanded NAC’s research focus to include rare diseases, cancer, mental illness, and autoimmune diseases, creating a dedicated research team in honor of Gail Hunt. Navigating the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic, Grace relocated the headquarters to downtown DC and expanded the staff and program reach.
Jason Resendez (2022–Present)
Under Jason Resendez, NAC is focused on what comes next: addressing inequities in caregiving, pushing for system-level change, and preparing for a future in which demand for care will only increase. An advocate for health equity with a deep understanding of Alzheimer’s and dementia, Jason brings a new lens to NAC’s work and a dedication to representative research and advocacy that captures the diverse experience of family caregivers. Through Jason’s leadership, NAC has expanded its reach on Capitol Hill and through coalitions, with the Act on RAISE Coalition, the Cancer Caregiving Collaborative, the Organ Transplant Collaborative, and other key partnerships. He has worked closely on the implementation of Medicare billing codes to reimburse providers for services provided to caregivers, and he has championed Medicaid as a foundation for support for families.
Building the Future of Caregiving
Thirty years after NAC was founded, the goal remains the same: Shine a spotlight on America’s often-invisible family caregivers and convince national and global organizations to support families across disease states and life spans.
We’ve made significant strides in highlighting caregivers in many diverse situations. Family caregivers and the unique challenges they face are recognized in research, reflected in policy, and increasingly part of how health systems, employers, and communities think about care.
But our successes also highlight a core challenge. The number of caregivers is growing, and so are their needs. The demands they place on American healthcare systems will increase as our population ages. And the systems in place now already lag behind existing needs.
NAC’s next priorities are to address these issues at the state and federal levels. This includes supporting the full implementation of the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers across all 15 federal agencies, with accountability mechanisms and robust funding.
The next 30 years will be defined by how we help America meet this moment. NAC’s role will be to continuously push that alignment across policy, healthcare, and the workplace so that the realities caregivers face every day are reflected in the systems meant to support them.
Family caregivers’ stories are firmly part of the national discourse. The work ahead is to ensure the conversations lead to real support for the people doing the work.
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