I would like to introduce you to your 2019-20 District Foundation Committee:
Jim Lechko | Foundation Chair/Paul Harris Society/Major Donor Chair |
| Wayne Brodnan | Fundraising Chair |
| Randy Rininger | Annual Giving Chair |
| Matt Liebson | Grant Committee Chair |
| Rick Pollak | Peace Fellowship Chair / Scholarship Chair |
| Bob Johnson | Vocational Training Team (VTT) Chair |
| Stew Buchanan | Polio Plus Chair / Indians Baseball Chair |
As you can see, I am wearing multiple hats. If you have a passion for the Paul Harris Society or Major Donor and would like to help, please let me know.
The Foundation committee is responsible for raising funds, approving matching funds used for your club projects both locally and internationally, Vocational Training Teams and reviewing potential Peace Fellow Scholars. Most importantly, we are here to educate you about The Rotary Foundation (TRF).
TRF raised over $395 million last year. Three years from now, 50% of those funds are available to our District to fund both local and global projects. These funds are knows as District Designated Funds (DDF). The other 50% will be used to fund global projects from our district and others.
This year, District 6630 received $117,103.16 in DDF based on our contributions from the 2016-17 Rotary year. We can designate up to 50% of these funds for matching grants of local projects. We had 25 clubs qualify for the spending plan totaling $65,678 in matching dollars! TRF gave an exemption this year which allowed us to exceed 50% of our 2016-17 contributions for our local projects.
The good news is that this is probably the most grant activity we have ever seen. The bad news is that we did not have enough money to fund all of the requests. We were forced to scale back all grant requests to about 80% of the amount requested. How do we fix this going forward? We need more contributions to TRF Annual Fund. If you are already giving, are you able to do more? If you are not giving, can you do something?
November is Foundation month. Please schedule a date for one of your November meetings for a TRF presentation by your club’s TRF expert! Our Foundation committee will be meeting in August to plan for TRF presentation ideas and recommendations that we can pass along to you.
Jim Lechko
District 6630 Foundation Chair
2019-20