Immediate Rotary International President Mark Maloney announced that the Rotary Foundation would start accepting grant requests under the new Supporting Environment Area of Focus in July, 2021.
How did Rotary come to this decision, and what happens next?
Rotary's leadership created a task force last year under the leadership of Past President Ian Riseley to decide how to handle environmental projects in Rotary grant making.
ESRAG leaders submitted a position paper recommending that environmental sustainability be named a distinct Area of Focus rather than a subset of the original six.
Working with RI staff, we also developed a questionnaire which was submitted to Rotarians and youth in Rotary programs around the world at the end of January. Almost 6,000 people responded in just over one week.
Over 94% said that Rotary can have a significant impact on environmental issues, that it's important for Rotary's reputation to be active on this, and that their friends would be interested in joining Rotary if Rotary got involved.
62% supported the creation of a new environmental Area of Focus. (Read more about the survey in ESRAG's February newsletter.)
ESRAG's Communications Director Karen Kendrick-Hands was invited to speak to the Task Force at the start of its February meeting. Then, we waited: as COVID-19 upended the world, Rotary in-person meetings were cancelled, and the Foundation Trustees and Rotary Board held confidential discussions.
Finally, on June 26, the closing day of RI's Virtual Convention, we got the glorious news of Rotary's decision at noon New York Time. Within 8 hours, over 2,000 Rotarians had liked and shared RI's announcement on Facebook.
Two steps are essential before grant making can begin under the new Area of Focus in 2021.
1. The Rotary Foundation must develop the criteria for what kinds of environmental projects will be eligible for global grants.
2. Donors are needed to contribute for environmental grants.
As the Rotary Action Group for environmentalists, ESRAG members will do our utmost to assist Rotary to achieve both tasks.
ESRAG's new Carbon Offset Fund is a great first step in raising money to be used for grants reducing or capturing carbon emissions.
If you'd like to donate now, start there! Pretend you flew to Honolulu and have fun doing the numbers! British Rotarian Keith Tovey, an expert in calculating carbon footprint, estimates that Rotary prevented over 100,000 tons of carbon emissions by holding its 2020 Convention virtually.
