Team Rubicon

Team Rubicon’s overarching goal is to serve more individuals impacted by disasters while ensuring a positive client and volunteer experience. This will ultimately ensure more individuals can live safely in their homes and communities while promoting the well-being of our veteran-led volunteers. In 2025, specifically, we aim to accomplish the following outcomes in the U.S. and in partnership with local communities:

- 1.4 Million People Impacted
- 200 Communities Served
- 7,000 Volunteer Deployments

Overall, reaching these goals will improve the health, safety, and accessibility of homes and communities impacted by disasters in 2025.

Team Rubicon leverages community partnerships, technology, and the breadth of our volunteer base to deliver impactful services to the clients we serve every day. These efforts, detailed below, strengthen our work and ensure Team Rubicon is positioned to meet communities’ evolving needs.

Veteran-Led Volunteer Base: Team Rubicon’s volunteer base of 180,000+ individuals, more than 60% of whom belong to the veteran and first responder community, enables localized and efficient disaster mitigation, response, and recovery services throughout the U.S. Our volunteers live in communities across the country and already possess the skills, experience, and passion for service necessary to effectively serve crisis-impacted communities. Whether their experience be from serving in the military or participating in community-based disaster trainings with Team Rubicon, these individuals drive Team Rubicon’s impact year-round.

Community Partnerships: Team Rubicon works with local nonprofits, tribal groups, the US Forest Service, state Offices of Emergency Services (OES), local fire departments, sheriff departments, emergency operations centers, and other groups to identify areas of high risk and need. Team Rubicon partners closely with local groups (e.g. municipal and fire authorities), providing the resources and volunteer labor needed to fill gaps in relief services throughout each community. Our work is also carried out in direct alignment with partners’ guidance and existing disaster plans, ensuring Team Rubicon’s services are impactful and relevant to the needs of each community.

Team Rubicon is also a member of National Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) as well as state and local VOADs. NVOAD is a collective of organizations throughout the U.S. that “promotes cooperation, communication, coordination and collaboration, and fosters more effective delivery of services to communities affected by disaster.” Multiple Team Rubicon staff members and volunteers hold positions on different committees and even on the Board of Directors.

Technology: Team Rubicon utilizes technology-based solutions like mobile applications, online dashboards, and quality assurance processes to measure and monitor the impact of our programs. For example, Team Rubicon builds and utilizes dashboards through ArcGIS, a web-based mapping software, to understand disaster risks, community vulnerability, and Team Rubicon’s resources and impact. This software displays information like volunteer density and training certifications to help plan and assess operations. Data also includes information like communities’ Social Vulnerability Index, FEMA Community Resilience Challenges Index (CRCI), and flood risk. These tools create a real-time view of populations’ risk levels and Team Rubicon’s ability to increase disaster resilience within each community.

Team Rubicon performs the following capabilities to help communities impacted by disasters and humanitarian crises:

-Greyshirt volunteer staff augmentation
-Expedient home repair
-Route clearance
-Residential debris removal
-Emergency Medical Team
-Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)
-Rebuild

Team Rubicon serves in all phases of the disaster cycle. Operations include mitigation efforts to prepare vulnerable communities for disasters, response services to serve families and individuals in the immediate aftermath of disasters, and long-term recovery operations to restore the safety and increase resiliency for homes damaged by disasters.

In 2023, Team Rubicon delivered a tangible impact to communities and organizations most in need including:

-260 communities served
-28,700+ individuals served across international and domestic crises and disasters
-5,700+ volunteers deployed
-23 homes rebuilt

Team Rubicon serves communities who need us most throughout the disaster cycle and we aim to continue to adapting community needs.