--- description: Find out who else is on the TIME100 Most Influential People in Philanthropy 2026 list. title: TIME100 Philanthropy: Caitlin Tulloch image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb01c8bb00b12e484/69fe3f29273c4c56c6af5228/t100-philanthropy-Caitlin_Tulloch.jpg.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9%2Coffset-x100.00%2Coffset-y5.81 --- May 14, 2026 # Caitlin Tulloch Funding matchmaker by Laurie Udesky  Courtesy Caitlin Tulloch When the Trump Administration began dismantling USAID in 2025, economist Caitlin Tulloch was leading a team at the agency that had used evidence-based research to guide distribution of $1 billion in aid. Bracing for the impact, Tulloch and a handful of like-minded colleagues formed[ Project Resource Optimization](https://proimpact.tools/ "undefined") that February, a proverbial matchmaking service pairing private donors with high-impact humanitarian and health projects that are at risk. It was “six people working in a free Google account,” Tulloch says. Using a database of all the U.S. Agency for International Development’s funding obligations for the fiscal year 2024, they winnowed the list down to programs that help prevent people from dying, by providing vaccinations or fighting malnutrition, for example. Then they got on the phone and called project leaders to see whether they were at risk after the loss of USAID funds, and whether they’d still be viable if funded, gathering data to analyze cost effectiveness. “What differentiates PRO as a tool for philanthropy was that it was not just providing funders with high-level recommendations, and then just saying go figure it out yourself,” Tulloch says. Since PRO’s launch in 2025, it has connected funders with 78 projects in Sudan, Nigeria, Haiti and Afghanistan and many other countries, totaling more than $113 million in funding. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collection/time100-philanthropy/2026/caitlin-tulloch/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collection/time100-philanthropy/2026/caitlin-tulloch/"},"headline":"Caitlin Tulloch","datePublished":"2026-05-14T12:02:15.926Z","dateModified":"2026-05-14T12:02:16.117Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collection/time100-philanthropy/2026/caitlin-tulloch/","keywords":["list","franchise","Accolades","Magazine","Philanthropy 2026"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb01c8bb00b12e484/69fe3f29273c4c56c6af5228/t100-philanthropy-Caitlin_Tulloch.jpg.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675%2Coffset-x100.00%2Coffset-y5.81&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laurie Udesky"}],"creator":"Laurie Udesky","articleSection":"TIME100","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb01c8bb00b12e484/69fe3f29273c4c56c6af5228/t100-philanthropy-Caitlin_Tulloch.jpg.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675%2Coffset-x100.00%2Coffset-y5.81&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/time100/","name":"TIME100"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collection/time100-philanthropy/2026/caitlin-tulloch/","name":"Caitlin Tulloch"}}]}] ```