There is no doubt that Rotary clubs need to raise funds and have a source of annual income to survive. Often our service projects require seed funding and we also have causes such as our Polio Plus program, our Blair Vining appeal or even supporting a Youth Exchange student. Some “easy” sources of income are Local Council Grants and the Gambling Community Benefit Fund and to a lesser extent District and Global Grants. Of course, there is always the BBQs and Fund Raising events. Many clubs have a long history of donating funds, often towards the end of the Rotary year, to a range of worthy causes and even sometimes to other charities. This is fine and makes us feel good and enhances our respect within the community. Rotary, however, is a service organisation, not a fund raising organisation and if half the effort we spend on devising ways to raise funds and then carrying out the fundraising activities was put into community service I think we would quickly begin to gain even more respect within the community and see a positive influence on our membership numbers. I’m not suggesting you “scrap” the BBQ but it’s probably going to be a lot easier to invite prospective members to a clean-up day in the local park or painting a local hall than working at a sausage sizzle. I personally enjoy the latter but if I were considering joining or new to a club, I’d want to know what else there was to satisfy my need to serve. I know that many of you have heard this before but I still keep running into clubs and members who get really hooked on coming up with ways to raise funds for their club and don’t spend an equal amount of time or more on working out what service projects they can achieve.
