Thank You for Making Our 25th Anniversary a Year to Remember

Looking back at all that our generous and compassionate supporters — people like you — made possible for cleft-affected children and families in this, our 25th year, fills our hearts with joy.

Thanks to you, in 2024, we:

• Reached our milestone 2 MILLIONTH cleft surgery
• Sponsored 93,000 cleft surgeries in 76 countries
• Supported 100,000+ non-surgical comprehensive cleft care treatments, including nutritional support, orthodontic and dental care, speech therapy, psychosocial counseling, and more, in 52 countries
• Facilitated our first-ever cleft surgery in Tunisia
• Enabled our first-ever speech treatments in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe
• Set our second Guinness World Records™ title in as many years by lighting 64 landmarks across the world in Smile Train blue in honor of World Smile Day®
• Expanded orthodontic support to seven new countries
• Expanded nutrition treatments to three new countries
• Published a groundbreaking economic impact report revealing that our work removing barriers to gainful employment and education for people with clefts has added $69 billion to the global economy — a 150x average return-on-investment for each of the 2 million+ surgeries we’ve sponsored.
• Were recognized as the Best Mid-sized Nonprofit of the Year at the Shorty Impact Awards, an international competition honoring the year’s best purpose-driven work driving positive change — and that was only one of a plethora of prestigious prizes we won this year, recognizing our foundational commitment to excellence in everything we do.

…and that’s barely scratching the surface of the impact we made together.

Thank you again for making 2024 the year we truly lit up the world with smiles.

We don’t know what 2025 will bring. But whatever else happens, your support can change the world for a child in need, make this the year of hope, healing, friendship, education, and joy they have always dreamed of.