Foundation Month - Message from President Charles
The month of November is Rotary Foundation month. Foundation Area Chair Ryan Geluk will be speaking to our Club at one of our meetings later in the month, and each meeting will include a Foundation minute, which will focus on a particular area of the Foundation.
The Foundation is the charitable arm of the Rotary organisation. In order to carry out its very considerable programme of charitable donations each year, it has to raise money. And it does this from a number of different sources. These include member contributions through programmes such as:
(a) The Annual Fund
- Every Rotarian Every year (EREY) – minimum contribution per member $12pa but you can achieve
- Sustaining membership with a minimum contribution per member of $100pa
(b) Endowment fund
- Benefactor, when you include the Endowment Fund as a beneficiary in your estate plans or when you donate $1,000 or more to the fund outright. Benefactors receive a certificate and insignia to wear with a Rotary or Paul Harris Fellow pin.
- Paul Harris Fellow, when you give $1,000 or more to the Annual Fund, PolioPlus, or an approved Foundation grant. You are recognized as a Multiple Paul Harris Fellow with each additional gift of $1,000.
- Paul Harris Society member, when you give $1,000 or more annually to the Annual Fund, PolioPlus, or an approved Foundation grant.
- Bequest Society member, when you give $10,000 or more via your estate plans. All society members receive recognition from the Trustees of The Rotary Foundation, and donors can choose to receive an engraved crystal recognition piece and a Bequest Society pin.
Funds raised through the Annual Fund are held by RI and invested for three years. RI funds its expenses from the investment income generated during those 3 years. At the end of the three year period, the annual contributions become available for District and Global Grants.
RI makes available to each District 50% of the funds raised by the District, which are then available to fund District Grants and Global Grants.
- District Grants are a hybrid of the previous District Simplified Grant, though the amount available per grant is somewhat higher. Our District has for the current year agreed to allocate 50% of the total funds made available to District Grants. There is no formula for calculating the amount of a Grant based on the value of the project. District Grants are administered by a committee comprised of District officers and Club members. This year the Clubs of the BVI received a grant of $3000 for the dictionaries
- Global Grants; The remaining 50% of funds released by the Foundation are set aside for Global Grants. If a project is approved, District will match a Club’s contribution 50c for each 1$ contributed by the Club. TRFT will then match $ for $. All Global Grants must have an International partner club (or clubs)from another District. The funds they contribute will be matched at their District and Foundation levels. It is possible to leverage a Club contribution 5 or 6 times, and hence projects funded by way of a Global grant are highly efficient way to fund a project. This year we are pursuing a Global Grant with a project cost of $76,000 for a Diabetes awareness campaign.
As a Club, and a District, we cannot expect to be allocated funds under either a District or Global Grant unless we contribute to the Annual Fund. You are all strongly encouraged to be a sustaining member by donating to the Annual Fund at least $100 this year. To make this easy, we shall be making available computer terminals at our meetings so that you can make your contributions on line. Please support the Fund. Without the support of members like yourselves the great work of Rotary cannot continue. Please give generously.
For a full list of opportunities for giving to the Foundation, visit www.rotary.org/myrotary/en/take-action/give/recognition