Our esteemed Director of the Rotary Foundation of Lake Stevens, Jim Haugen, updated our Club talked about One Rotary Club - Two Foundations. They are the Rotary Foundation of Lake Stevens and the Rotary International Foundation. Until Jim joined our Club, our RCLS Foundation wasn't meeting the expectations of the District and Rotary International. Once Jim took over the responsibilities of the Foundations, we have gradually grown to meet and exceed District and RI goals.
The RCLS Foundation was established on December 31, 1998. The Rotary International Foundation was first seeded in 1917 when Arch Klumph's idea for a endowment fund was mentioned. In 1928, the Rotary Foundation was formally named. In 1929, the Foundation made its first gift of $500 to the International Society for Crippled Children. The organization, created by Rotarian Edgar F. "Daddy" Allen, later grew into Easter Seals.
The Lake Stevens Rotary Charitable Foundation Board of Directors consists of Ken Collins, President; Reshal Ploeger, Vice President; Laurie Westover, Past President; Chris Vallo, Treasurer; Gary O'Rielly, Secretary; Ilene Levering, Avenue of Community Service and Lance Morehouse, Avenue of Vocational Service.
The RCLS Foundation assets are $134,248. The Loren Hole Endowment Fund is $68,166. This Endowment was started in 2007. The RCLS Foundation has $13,596 to spend this year with the possibility of another $6,000 to spend.
The Mission of the Rotary International Foundation is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvements of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty. The Charity Navigator has given the Rotary Foundation a Four Star rating and we have been told that Linkedin has rated the Foundation as the #2 in the world. In the Rotary Foundation, 92% of funds are spent on program awards and operations.
The Rotary International Foundation is dedicated to six areas of focus to build international relations, improve lives, and create a better world to support our peace efforts and end polio forever. The areas of focus are: Promoting Peace; Fighting Disease; Providing clean water, sanitation and hygiene; Saving Mothers and Children; Supporting Education and Growing Local Economies. More than $18 million in Foundation global grant funding has been allocated to environment-related projects over the past five years. Creating a distinct area of focus to support the environment will give Rotary members even more ways to bring about positive change in the world and increase our impact.
Preventing disease has been the number one issue for the Foundation and District 5050 contributed $182,869 to the cause. And, in 2016-2017 the District contributed $400,156 to the RI Foundation Annual Fund that helped District 5050 receive back $200,000 in District Designated Funds (DDF) in 2019-2020. The Rotary Club of Lake Stevens was #10 on the District Designated Funds (DDF) District Grants 2020-21 Supported Projects. Although the 2020 District 5050 GolFun was not held this year, Rotarians of the District still raised $101,234 this year for the Foundation.
Jim reported that our Club has 21 Paul Harris Fellows and one Paul Harris Benefactor. The RCLS Foundation has contributed $5,870.50 to the RI Foundation through September 2020 for the current Rotary year. The RCLS Foundation is averaging $140-150 per Club member. Our Club received a matching grant from the District in the amount of $7,200 for the Highland Elementary playground structure expansion project which was #10 listed in the previous paragraph. Our Club will fund 25% of the school's project with these matching funds with the projected being organized by their PTA organization.
The District awarded our Club this year for 100% Foundation Giving Club and for Every Rotarian, Every Year Club again thanks to the efforts of Jim and Club Officers and Directors as well as our fantastic members. So much more to report but this should give everyone an account of the two Foundations and our Club's involvement. It goes with out saying that all of our success can be attributed to Jim's very capable leadership on the RCLS Foundation.