Ryan's Well

About Ryan's Well:

Founded in 2001, Ryan’s Well Foundation (Ryan’s Well) works to improve access to clean water as well as sanitation and hygiene education in developing countries. The charity aims to save lives, improve health and create brighter futures for those in greatest need of clean water. Ryan’s Well reports that nearly 1 billion people lack access to clean water. Nearly 2.6 billion people lack access to clean washrooms – 1.2 billion do not have access to washrooms at all. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 50% of the population lives without a clean water source. An estimated 5% of Africa’s GDP is lost annually due to illnesses and deaths caused by dirty water and inadequate sanitation.

To improve health and well-being in its targeted communities, Ryan’s Well follows a 3-element model: clean water, sanitation and hygiene. The charity has 3 major program buckets – building, education and motivation. Building programs made up 84% of program costs in F2016. Motivation programs made up 9% of program costs and education programming made up the remaining 7%.

Ryan’s Well’s building program improves clean water accessibility in countries by completing water projects and building latrines. In F2016, Ryan’s Well worked on water projects in Uganda, Kenya, Haiti, Togo, Ghana and Burkina Faso. The charity reports completing 98 water projects and building 66 latrines within the year, helping 23,000 people. Ryan’s Well reports 1,166 completed water projects and 1,245 built latrines in over 1,000 communities in 16 countries since its inception. 892,725 people have access to clean water as a result.

Financial Review:

Ryan’s Well Foundation is a small-cap charity with donations of $778k in F2016. Administrative costs are 12% of revenues and fundraising costs are 8% of donations. Per dollar donated to the charity, $0.80 goes to the cause, which falls within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. The charity’s funding reserves of $233k can cover only 33% of annual program costs, indicating a funding need.

Ryan’s Well uses external fundraisers as parts of its fundraising activities. The charity reports $6k in fundraising costs for external fundraisers that raised $112k in F2016, producing an external fundraising cost ratio of 5%.

This report is a new charity profile that is currently being reviewed by Ryan’s Well. Comments and edits may be forthcoming.

Created on May 19, 2017 by Katie Khodawandi.