The Rotary Foundation

Posted by Dianne Reed

on Nov 10, 2015

Our guest speaker, Pushpa Pushpalingam, reminded us that the Rotary Foundation is the heart and soul of Rotary International. It is the engine that drives the Rotary Wheel. Not sure why?

The Rotary Foundation's mission is to facilitate world understanding, promote goodwill and peace, assist in improving health, providing education and alleviating poverty around the world. It's motto is 'to do good in the world' and has been doing just that since it was penned in 1917 by RI President Arch Klump.

Donations from members, and clubs go into the fund and are then redistributed back to the clubs through either District Grants or Global Grants three years into the future. This provides a continual stream of funds which can be accessed by clubs to support specific projects they have in mind. To access these funds clubs must be involved in an annual training program to qualify. Our club has regularly accessed funds through either or both of these Grant programs to support the work that we are doing locally and internationally.

Pushpa reminded us that if The Foundation is to bring peace and hope to people around the world, then we all need to help out. To this end our club has 100% individual members who are Centurians - people who donate $100 Australian each year to the Foundation. Other donor opportunities include the following:

Becoming a major donor by contributing $10,000 or more
Becoming a benefactor by contributing $1000
Contributing to the Bequest Society - placing a request into your will that an amount of $10,000 or more will be contributed to the Rotary Foundation
or, becoming a member of the Arch Klump Society through contributing $250,000.

Pushpa is the current Rotary Foundation Chair for District 9465.