The Rotary Foundation, Presented by Giving Officer Geoff Cochran
On April 4, 2024, we were privileged to be visited by Geoff Cochran, one of 7 Annual Giving Officers for The Rotary Foundation’s (TRF), all the way from Evanston, Illinois. Geoff joined the Giving Officer team in 2019. Geoff gave us a summary of the status of TRF and its many charitable giving programs and most important current TRF projects. Geoff reached out to President Debra asking if she was interesting in having him as a speaker while he was here for a visit to the District’s Spring Training, telling Debra that he was specifically interested in seeing our club! Geoff tells us that the “Spirit of the Foundation” is alive and well in our club and he congratulated us on being a multiple Paul Harris Fellow and Every Rotarian Every Year club!
Geoff’s major focus as Giving Officer is on the Annual Fund. Geoff has worked with non-profits for two decades and has some amazing insights into TRF. Our Foundation is unique. TRF spends 90% of all donations on its charitable programs. This percentage is unheard of in charitable organizations, in which even the best managed funds typically spend 70-80% of donations on programs. The premier charitable organization rating organization, Charitable Navigator, has given TRF its highest rating every year for the last 15 years! TRF’s design is also unique in the charitable world: Nearly 50% of all donations to the Annual Fund are returned annually to the Rotary Districts after 3 years! The other 50% goes to TRF’s World Fund (our primary funding source for global grants). TRF’s 2023-2024 fundraising goals are impressive. The goal is for $500 million overall, split between the Annual Fund and Polio ($150 million each), the Endowment Fund ($140 million), and other ($60 million). The largest expected increase is for the Endowment Fund, for which TRF hopes to soon achieve its $2 billion goal.
TRF’s flagship program is polio eradication. When we started the program in 1989 people laughed at us. Through our efforts and those of our close partners (primarily the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) we are on the brink of eradicating this horrible disease. So far this year there have only been 2 new polio cases in only 2 countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan!
A new and innovative TRF project is the Programs of Scale. These are long-term, high-impact programs led by Rotarians. The first was Partners in Malaria-Free Zambia in 2020-2021, followed by Together for Healthy Families in Nigeria, and United to End Cervical Cancer in Egypt. A new program will expand the Zambia malaria project to incorporate 4 African countries.
The Rotary Foundation provides a number of incentives to help Rotarians donate. The Paul Harris Fellow awards Rotarians who donate a total of $1,000. Individual Rotarians can be credited with up to 9 Paul Harris Fellow awards. Major Donor awards are for lifetime donations of $10,000, $25,000, $50,000, and $100,000. The Arch Klump Society Award is for Rotarians who have donated $250,000. The Paul Harris Society Awards donors for making annual $1,000 donations. Clubs receive the Every Rotarian Every Year (EREY) award if each Rotarian in a club donates at least $25 in a year and the club’s per capita donations reach $100. Club members who give a minimum of $100 are sustaining members.
Geoff reminded us that becoming a donor is easy! Get online with Rotary.org, find “my Rotary”, sign in, click “donate”, and fill in the blanks. You can find your current donations and a donor history report under “My account.” It’s easy and painless. As Geoff noted, TRF loves major donors but the real engine for TRF is ordinary members donating $100 and $1,000.
Many thanks to Geoff for a clear, simple, integrated, and highly informative presentation about the Rotary Foundation. And remember; "Every Dollar Saves and Changes a Life"
