by Audrey Betcher
The Rotary Club of RochesterLet’s start with the Club’s income. By far most of the club’s income comes from dues. Other income includes money from the Foundation to support the salary of the Club Administrator who assists the Foundation. Happy Bucks also support the Club.
Then let’s move on to expenses for the club. Approximately half of all dues go to support the Rotary District and Rotary International administration. The dollars from dues and The Foundation support the salary of the Club Administrator. Dues also cover things such as licenses for Clubrunner and the website, Zoom, merchant fees for credit card transactions, taxes and insurance, postage, and new member lunches. (Yes, you can bring a prospective new member, and the club will pick up the cost of their lunch.) The Rotary Club of Rochester is a 501c4 organization which is a membership organization.
The Rotary Club of Rochester Community Foundation
The Rotary Club of Rochester Community Foundation is a 501c3 organization which makes donations to the Foundation tax-deductible. TRCRCF is funded by donations and fundraising. There is some income coming from interest from an endowment at the Rochester Area Foundation.
The Rotary Club of Rochester Community Foundation is a 501c3 organization which makes donations to the Foundation tax-deductible. TRCRCF is funded by donations and fundraising. There is some income coming from interest from an endowment at the Rochester Area Foundation.
TRCRCF primarily plays three roles:
- TRCRCF is the fiscal agent for restricted funds. This includes 3-club projects including district and international grants (e.g. Guatemala Stove Project, Tanzania Water Project, etc.), World Community Service/Rochester Grants Committee.
- TRCRCF supports local service projects prioritized by TRCR. This includes Youth Exchange, the Ethics Program, mentoring, STRIVE, etc.
- TRCRCF supports local non-profits that align with the priorities and strategic plan of TRCR. Examples of this are Cradle to Career and the Impact Grant.
Initiatives supported by the Rotary Club of Rochester/TRCRCF:
- STRIVE (Students Taking Renewed Interest In the Value of Education) - a mentoring program with scholarship incentives for select high school seniors who desire to improve their academic performance and who meet our program criteria. Criteria include being eligible for high school graduation, regular STRIVE meeting attendance, improved GPAs, and completion of a goal setting plan.
- Youth Ethics Day – a program presented to select high school students from the Rochester Schools centered on understanding the importance of ethical behavior as future leaders.
- Diversity, Equity, Inclusion – The 3-Clubs have signed a Commitment to Racial Justice with the Rochester Nonprofit Consortium. Our 3rd Thursday service project uses volunteers to review Olmsted County deed records to identify racial covenants as part of the Mapping Prejudice Project.
- Camp RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) - a character-building program focused on leadership, effective communication, trust and cooperation. We sponsor four junior class students from Rochester High Schools for this weekend long program. Camp RYLA is a two-district program covering nearly all of the state of Minnesota.
- Youth Exchange – provide international opportunities to eager, ambitious, and inquisitive high school students — both to come to our area to experience American life, or to go abroad to one of over 30 countries around the world.
- Mentoring Program – We are piloting a program pairing young professionals with more seasoned Rotarians. They meet regularly and the young professionals define goals for the year.
- World Community Service/Rochester Grants Committee – This is a 3-club effort that allocates funds towards district and international service projects.
- Cradle2Career - a comprehensive, cooperative, evidence-based approach to address education gaps in Rochester. It is based on the work of StriveTogether, a national organization that developed this collaboration model focused on using local data to make smarter decisions. The Rotary Clubs of Rochester helped fund the formation of this organization with additional monies from a grant from District Designated Funds from District 5960.
Our Club encourages donations to Rotary International and District 5960 programs like The Rotary Foundation’s PolioPlus and the LIFT program managed by District 5960, formally known as Fast For Hope. LIFT is an acronym that stands for: Listen, Inquire, Facilitate, and Transform. This is the basic process that the LIFT program operates by. LIFT focuses on communities suffering from extreme poverty. LIFT puts ownership and advancement from poverty on the community itself. The current area of operations for LIFT is Nicaragua.
I hope this summary has helped explain where the money comes from and where the money goes to support our local Rotarians living out our motto of “Service Above Self.”