W
hen Rick Hansen
set o on his Man
in Motion World
Tour in March
1985, he planned to spend
two or three years rais-
ing awareness about the
potential of people with
disabilities and then return
to wheelchair marathoning
at the Paralympic Games.
Thirty-three years later, he
is
CEO of a foundation that
funds several programs and
initiatives, including the Rick
Hansen Institute, a charitable
organization dedicated to
establishing a global network
of researchers seeking a cure
for spinal cord injury; and the
new Rick Hansen Accessibil-
ity Certiˆcation program
to rate the accessibility of
buildings and outdoor spaces
across Canada.
"Even though we would be
able to celebrate a signiˆcant
amount of success as a legacy
of that tour, in reality we
were sitting at the base camp
of a massive Mount Everest
summit, and we had a long
way to go," Hansen explains.
"So my view changed
dramatically. We were left
with not only the experience
of the tour that changed me,
but we'd raised $26 million,
and we had a responsibility
to make sure that money cre-
ated an impact. We decided
that we needed to really think
carefully about what was the
best way to do that."
Hansen and his team
considered supporting an
existing charity, but there
was no single organization
addressing his dual goals: to
help create awareness and
remove barriers for people
with disabilities; and to ˆnd
a cure for spinal cord injury.
They decided to create a
foundation that was •ex-
ible enough to address new
priorities and opportunities
to make change.
To get there, they relied
on a group of advisers
and assembled a board of
P u B l i C f o u n D a t i o n
The Rick Hansen Foundation is
dedicated to removing barriers for people
with disabilities and to nding a cure for
spinal cord injury
Global Movement
31%
55%
6%
■ Charitable program
$6,262,610
■ Management and admin-
istration $1,308,295
■ Fundraising
$1,677,983
■ Political activities $0
■ Gifts to other registered
charities and qualified
donees $11,221,854
■ Other $0
TOTAL ExPEnSES: $20,470,742
8%
42 BCBusiness FEBRUARy 2018
r i C k h a n s e n f o u n D a t i o n
Expenses
BEYonD BARRIERS
Hansen's foundation is a
big supporter of acces-
sible locations, like this
playground in Richmond
SOURCE:
CRA
(FOR
REPORTiNG
PERiOD
ENDiNG
MARCH
31,
2017)
COURTESy OF RiCK HANSEN FOUNDATiON
