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Financial Oversight
All incoming pledges and sponsors for the Ride for Refugees are managed by the RIDE Team, which is overseen directly by the management team of International Teams Canada (ITC). This management board is in turn overseen by their Board of Directors. As well, management and finance staff from ITUS and ITAU are closely involved in all planning and budget matters concerning the RIDE.
All RIDE Partner Grant 'partners' are carefully vetted prior to approval and each approved partner is required to submit a formal report within 9 months of receiving their RIDE Partner Grant. Failure to comply excludes future RPG approval.
Event Expenses
Each year since 2004, the RIDE has more than doubled in size in every area: total riders, money raised and new locations. This level of growth has been challenging, but with each year has come better understanding of our location management, capacity investment (systems, processes) and annual marketing campaign expenses.
Expense ratios for new locations can and do run as high as 25%, depending on how successful that location is in raising money. More established locations like Waterloo operate well under 10%.
Sponsorship provides critical expense reduction, and this support in 2009 will bring in an estimated $25,000-$50,000 of new income which will flow directly (as a savings) into the refugee programs of International Teams. Every $10,000 of sponsorship support reduces event expenses by approximately 1%.
Event expenses are partially managed onsite by volunteer Event Directors who make decisions relating to rest station supplies, portable toilets, signage, rental facilities, food for lunch, etc. This portion of the budget is approximately 6-8%.
The RIDE team manages all other expenses relating to website management, online donations (including credit card processing fees and fund raising system), annual marketing campaign printing and distribution of brochures, posters, DVD, new location marketing expenses, rider reward t-shirts, liability insurance premiums, post-RIDE processing, etc.
Budget estimates and event expense ratios are influenced by (but not limited to) the number or riders, average raised per rider, average raised online, sponsorship income, and number of new locations.
International Team Programs
International Teams operates a robust program of refugee service and ministry in North America, Australia, and multiple sites around the world. Each host country has selected primary refugee ministries and programs to which they will be allocating their net (after RPG and event expense) income. Australia, Canada and the USA will invest in specific programs for the 2009 RIDE year that include: (click here to see details of each program under GRANTS)
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Australia:
• Sydney Refugee Team - Australia
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Canada:
• Impact Iraq
• Impact Kenya
• Impact Rwanda - Kigali
• Impact Southern Sudan - Kajo Keji
• Impact Uganda - Kampala
• Listen to Learn Institute - East Africa
• London Urban Network - Canada
• TrueCity Hamilton - Canada
• Welcome Home Refugee Housing Community - Canada
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USA:
• Athens Refugee Center - Greece
• Elgin Ministry Center - Refugee Mobilization Team - USA
• Fort Wayne Refugee Team - USA
• Minneapolis Refugee Team - USA
• Nairobi Refugee Team - USA
• Team Beyond - Uganda
• The OASIS - Austria
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RIDE Partner Grant Program
Last year 72 organizations qualified to receive a total of $272,648 in RIDE Partner Grants. These funds were invested into churches, refugee-supporting organizations and larger NGOs (Non-Government Organizations).
Organizations of note included:
• Masai for Africa
• Health Partners International
• Matthew House Refugee Ministry
• Micah House Refugee Housing
• Vive La Casa
• Working Women Community Centre
• Journey's End Refugee Services
• Lutheran World Relief
Valuable Church Partners:
Churches were by far the largest RPG benefactors. Of the 72 approved organizations and programs, 36 were churches with a large percentage of these involved in direct, community-based refugee sponsorship and support. (See graph on right - Breakdown of RPG by Type of Service)
For more information about the RIDE, please email info@rideforrefugees.com
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