For the past year, District Governor-Elect Jim Ferguson (Rotary E-club of Canada One) has been making Rotarians aware of the Rotary Global Rewards program and encouraging clubs to add a link to their website.

For the past year, District Governor-Elect Jim Ferguson (Rotary E-club of Canada One) has been making Rotarians aware of the Rotary Global Rewards program and encouraging clubs to add a link to their website.  “It’s a value-added service that Rotary International offers Rotarians and Rotaractors,” Jim says.  The program offers Rotary club members discounts on products and services for travel, entertainment, and merchandise.  When the program was introduced a few years ago, Rotary Global Rewards were conceived as a way to help clubs enhance member satisfaction and retention. The program is also a way to thank members for their service and their generous support of The Rotary Foundation.

Members can sign into Rotary Global Rewards through their My Rotary account to browse the offers. They can also access the program on their smartphones.  “There is a Rotary Global Rewards app.” Jim says. “It is available for free download on the Apple app store or through Google Play. You can order products from your iPad or your mobile phone, without going to the main site.” He hopes Rotarians will check out Rotary Global Rewards. “I would like them to think about it whenever they go online to do some shopping or if they are going on a trip,” he says. “There are rental cars through Rotary Global Rewards and hotels through Rotary Global Rewards.” 

Rotary Global Awards FAQs

Amazon is one company participating the program. “Amazon offers up to five per cent cashback to Rotary, which then can be used for projects or programs.”  Other companies offer discounts to Rotarians making purchases through the program, while others offer a combination of discounts and donations to Rotary.  “Rotarians can vote on where they want their contributions to go,” Jim says. “There is a tab that says, ‘Vote on contributions.’ If you click on that you will see, ‘Please vote on the area of focus to receive the net proceeds from purchases made through the RGR program. The proceeds from the program, less expenses, will be contributed to areas of focus based on voting by members using the program.’ “They have different things: eradicating polio, supporting education, providing clean water, saving women and children, growing local economies, promoting peace, fighting disease, and then there’s one for Himalayan water purifiers.”  To date, the emphasis for Jim and his committee, which includes John Wojcicki (RC of Edmonton), Nomsa Maromo (Edmonton Southeast) and Gaurang Skukla (Peace River), has been “trying to increase the awareness of the program and trying to get the links on clubs’ websites,” Jim says. “If they have a Facebook presence, we would like to get the RGR link on the Facebook site as well.”  Jim estimates that two-thirds of the clubs in our District have a link on their website.

In addition to shopping through the Rotary Global Rewards site, Rotarians can post their own offers. “We would like to see Rotarians that have businesses creating their own offers. They can post them online. Rotary Global Rewards will review the offer and then they will post it,” Jim says.  “So, suppose a Rotarian is travelling to Peace River and a Rotarian has a hotel up there, they may offer a discount for staying at the hotel.”