2025 Trends in the Care Economy

We need more catalytic capital to fuel innovation in the care economy. This specialized funding uses philanthropic dollars to invest in early-stage, for-profit companies with bold but unproven ideas. Unlike traditional venture capital, which seeks quick financial returns with scale, or social impact investing, which balances financial returns with measurable social outcomes, catalytic capital is patient and risk-tolerant, stepping in where traditional investors won’t. It funds solutions that wouldn’t exist otherwise, proving their potential and allowing mainstream venture capital to crowd in funding later. By de-risking early-stage unproven care innovation, catalytic capital unlocks transformative solutions that can scale and drive lasting impact in the care economy.

Men and young men have a new role to play and the opportunity there. Worrying about young men becoming more disconnected from a healthy cycle society.

Until I joined Mission Driven Finance to help conceive and launch Care Access Real Estate (CARE), I had not given much thought to the real estate of the care economy. Through conversations with care providers over the past four years and now the experience of leasing ideal care spaces to providers, I now recognize the potency of investing in the infrastructure of the sector. We cannot expect to grow the availability of care services (whether child care, elder care, disability care, etc.) without growing the physical footprint of the sector. Public schools and universities benefit from bonding authority to build facilities; affordable housing get build using generous tax breaks. There is almost no federal or state investment in care real estate, and private investors have not had ways to invest in care real estate either. CARE is breaking new ground, so to speak, in this area, as are many CDFIs. I hope that 2025 can become the year that care economy real estate investment, both public and private, goes mainstream.

Many employers have been providing backup care subsidies and support for decades. There's an opportunity to expand and optimize this backup care budget, and seize a moment to reimagine how backup care offerings can innovate to meet the unique needs of today's workforce.

There are so few dollars focused on family mental health from philanthropy and venture capital relative to the need and opportunity. If we saw more funders and investors focus here, we could make a transformative impact for families nationally.

Continuing how we operate today, return to office can and will have a potential negative impact on neurodiverse and disabled employees

Financial fraud targeting seniors is reportedly one of the fastest-growing forms of elder abuse, and while financial caregiving is of course an emerging space, I do think we must certainly collectively have the resources and technology to do better.

Telehealth is being used as a bridge back to primary care. This is critical in light of the primary care shortage as telehealth acts as an extension of the team based care model. The additional advantage is cultural concordance is being built into many telehealth platforms as a best practice, which better meets the patient’s needs.

The child care industry is overregulated. It is so challenging and expensive to run a childcare center and even a home daycare due to all the licensing requirements. Not all these regulations help with improving safety and quality.

There are some continuing growing movements across the globe to elevate children as special and important members of society! Norway’s movement to “Let Childhood be Childhood” is such a great model for how we can change the conversation and culture for children everywhere.

I’d like to see more exploration of the creative possibilities for cross-sector workforce licensing, or enabling other types of caregivers (elder care, nursing care, etc.) to have modified or waived certification requirements given their expertise so they can participate in the ECE workforce.

The US Census Bureau estimates that there will be 73 million baby boomers (all aged 65 and older) by 2030, and they will outnumber children 13 and under for the first time in history. I do believe many are paying attention to this issue, but I do not believe we are prepared for the adjustments that this might require across the board, particularly for working sandwich generation caregivers navigating rising child care costs alongside increasing elder care responsibilities.