Refugee Council USA

What it reported doing in 2024

Rcusa strengthens the collective power and effectiveness of its members and partners in delivering responsive, equity-focused policies and programs and driving systemic change. Rcusa carries out this work by providing a number of ongoing platforms for our member organizations to coordinate advocacy, communications, and resettlement operations, including through convening of monthly or biweekly meetings of member-led, staff facilitated committees and working groups. Rcusa also facilitates periodic in-person and virtual meetings with us government officials, and hosts rcusa policy center webinars on key topics of interest to our membership. To be continuted on schedule oin early 2024, through our interaction with the federal government, rcusa helped unlock $82 million in additional federal funding for refugee housing. Throughout the year, rcusa advocates for measures to improve and expand resettlement, asylum, humanitarian protection, and inclusion for forcibly displaced populations. A highlight of this work is our annual national advocacy days event, rcusa brings constituents from across the united states to Washington dc to speak to members of congress and their staffs about the importance of refugee protection and the vital contributions of resettled refugees, asylees, and other formerly displaced persons to local communities across the county. In may 2024, rcusa's national advocacy days drew some 300 constituent-advocates from 35 states, about half of them with lived experience of forced displacement, to meetings with 147 congressional offices. During advocacy days, more than 100 formerly displaced persons also participated in a day-long refugee leadership training event. Rcusa is a founding partner in the us refugee advisory board, a pioneering non-government body that channels the participation of formerly displaced people into us government delegations to relevant international refugee policy bodies, thus providing a mechanism to ensure there is meaningful engagement by refugees in policies affecting them. Rcusa is also working to improve the measures used to gauge successful integration of refugees into local communities in the us, so that the way integration is measured better captures the range of interests, needs, priorities, and experiences of refugees themselves. Rcusa helps represent the refugee-serving civil society community in global refugee policy forums. Rcusa assembled and led us civil-society delegations to the february 2024 working group on resettlement meeting (held in sydney, australia), and the june 2024 consultations on resettlement and complementary pathways (hosted by unhcr in geneva, switzerland). Rcusa participated (alongside counterpart civil society organizations in canada, australia, and new zealand) in the launch of a new international networking platform for refugee resettlement practitioners, the international refugee integration and settlement exchange (irise). Rcusa further served its member organizations in 2024 by organizing two presidential transition documents to help guide refugee advocacy approaches in the event of either a biden or trump electoral victory in the november 2024 election.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 68.4%; rating input score 68
• Program expense ratio: 69.4%; rating input score 69
• Fundraising efficiency: $55.79 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 16th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Pass
  • Compensation survey or study: Missing
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 0%; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Fail
  • Document-retention policy: Fail
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 1.4%; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.26; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 20%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: -5.1% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 3% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 2.6% per year; rating input score 100; 28th percentile among comparable filings