Development Ratings

Co-founders David and Christopher Mikkelsen manage the operations out of Copenhagen, as well as the partnership formation and publicity, with the current help of 120 volunteers. David and Christopher have backgrounds in teaching. Their recent teaching work had been with refugees in Copenhagen, teaching languages and using music and art to help refugees express themselves, but they have also travelled extensively and seen first-hand the conditions in refugee camps.

Refugees United Foundation has been initially financed by the Bitten and Mads Clausen Foundation, The Way Forward, and the Kirsten and Peter Bangs Foundation. The board members include professionals with experience in online search, charitable investment and shopping forums, as well as advertising, the law, foundations management, communications, and film production. Many more volunteers and ambassadors are planned to help develop and spread out the system and its use (estimated at 5,000 over 5 years).

Corporate partners help support the organisation as well as outsource needs and keep costs low. By not asking directly for monetary contributions from them, RU has engaged staff and generated goodwill and greater awareness of the plight of refugees while developing its services and profile. Current partners include:

• search engine developer, Matter,

• web security company, TDC Hosting,

• communications agency, Ketchum Estratégia (providing pro bono media engagement services in 38 countries and acting as liaison between RU and governments, NGOs and the public),

• global delivery company, FedEx Express (delivering posters, flyers, and awareness raising materials to refugee camps, asylum centres, and NGOs),

• airline company, SAS (providing the air trips to visit refugee camps and partners),

• mobile telecommunications company, 3 Mobile (covering mobile connectivity and phones for RU),

• law firm, TVC,

• on-line digital branding agency, Atmosphere Cph,

• strategic design agency, e-Types,

• designers, Munthe plus Simonsen,

• US law firm, Harlowtown (providing pro bono US charity registration work),

• internet promotion organisation, Vitalis-Cibernarium (providing IT to refugees and immigrants), and,

• Red Cross programme, Cruz Vermelha Brasileira.

A global internet search engine is providing strategic advice, and an international IT company is providing IT infrastructure. Watch designer, OBAKU, and bottled water company, Kildevandsfirmaet, will donate a proportion of specific sales to RU. The model is for sustainable “revenue generating” sponsoring partnerships.

The running costs of Refugees United relate to staff and IT costs to develop and implement the system and to train NGOs and ambassadors, as well as office, travel and publicity printing costs. Development costs include the icon-based system for non-literate users as well as improving the language conversion capacity. This will enable details entered in one language to be searchable in another. A planned mobile telephone service is intended to send a message to users when contacts are made on the system.

The total financing need in years 1 to 3 is US$2.8m. The net financing need in years 1 to 3 is US$2.2m after adjusting for the estimated sponsoring revenue.

Obaku has designed a special edition Refugees United watch at a retail price of US$247. It will donate US$20 to RU per watch sold. The expected revenue shown above is dependent on the expected number of watches sold over the next three years, from 3,500 in year 1 to 17,000 in year 3.

Costs are planned to be kept under control (IT, air flights, hardware and other materials are donated). The proportion of direct project costs (regional access, development of the mobile phone platform, and continuous improvements to the system) are planned to become a higher proportion of total costs over the initial period.