In 1985, Rick Hansen embarked on the Man in Motion World Tour to raise funds for spinal cord injury research and rehabilitation. As a Paralympic athlete, Rick wheeled 40,000km over two years and raised $26 million. After the tour, the Rick Hansen Foundation (RHF) was created in 1988 to continue raising funds and awareness to create a world without barriers for people with disabilities. The foundation reports that 1 in 7 Canadians have a disability and that number will rise to 1 in 5 by 2036. It is focused on raising awareness, building accessible spaces, and funding spinal cord injury research. The foundation’s head office is in Richmond, British Columbia.

RHF spent $3.5m (39% of program costs in F2020) on accessibility initiatives and services to improve physical accessibility. The charity’s Accessibility Certification program uses a rating system to determine the accessibility of commercial, institutional, and multi-family residential buildings. Since the program launched in 2017, RHF has certified more than 790 sites, including more than 50 gold sites.

The foundation spent $2.2m (24% of program costs in F2020) on spinal cord injury research to improve the health and quality of life for people with disabilities. It collaborates with the Praxis Spinal Cord Institute (formerly the Rick Hansen Institute) for its research. In F2019, RHF granted $492k to the Praxis Spinal Cord Institute. The institute has released over 250 peer-reviewed publications and engaged with 60 health care sites around the world.

RHF spent $2.0m (22% of program costs in F2020) on awareness programs and initiatives, which educate the public about the importance of accessibility and the issues facing people with disabilities. The charity’s #EveryoneEverywhere campaign has generated more than 1.4bn impressions since it launched in May 2019.

The foundation spent $1.2m (13% of program costs) on education and outreach. In F2020, RHF reports that 3,251 new educators registered for the RHF School Program, which provides administrators and teachers with resources such as lesson plans and tools to run disability awareness events. Also, the RHF Ambassador program gave 341 presentations to more than 60k students across Canada to engage in conversations about disability, accessibility, and inclusion. Ambassadors are a diverse group of people with different disabilities affecting their mobility, sight, and hearing.

Rick Hansen Foundation is a Medium-sized charity, receiving $2.0m in donations in F2020. The charity also received $6.3m in government funding. Administrative costs are 14% of revenues and fundraising costs are 29% of donations. For every dollar donated, 57 cents go to the cause. This is not within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. RHF holds $14.3m in funding reserves, of which $134k is donor-endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, RHF can cover 1.6 years of annual program costs.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Rick Hansen Foundation for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on August 14, 2020 by Tenzin Shomar.