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Update on the Local Discretionary Granting Strategic Directions Randy Topolnitsky Your granting committees have been busy behind the scenes working to integrate the granting strategy into their work. We have not communicated to you for quite a while, so I just wanted to recap some of the highlights of the Granting Strategy. How we got here! The Rotary Club of Calgary Downtown (RCCD) has a long, proud history of community service. In fact, community service is at the core of its mission. The Club has generously contributed millions of dollars, countless volunteer hours, and rich expertise to make positive impacts locally in the Calgary community. In doing so, our Club has developed a reputation as a community leader worthy of admiration and emulation. We proudly support Calgarians in need and are working to make a meaningful impact in their lives. In the spirit of continuous improvement, many Club members felt that RCCD could have an even bigger community impact by being more strategic in our local granting. So, in 2023-24, the Granting Strategy Task Force (GSTF) was pleased to hear from Club members throughthe largest consultation and engagement process in the Club’s history. It aimed to be inclusive and accessible to all. The Club’s input resulted in a Local Discretionary Granting Strategy that the Board approved in July 2024. Thank you again to all who took the time to participate! Why do we need a Local Discretionary Granting Strategy? Taking comments from one of our Past-Presidents, Eva Friesen, “We need to ask: How is Rotary’s purpose unique? How might that purpose still have relevance? Our sizable endowment (approximately $50 million) affords us the luxury of continuing to exist whether we are relevant or not. We need to be cognizant of the need to stay relevant, and the temptation to fall into comfortable cruise control fueled by the endowment. To stay relevant requires listening, looking, identifying shifts in the environment, shifts in people’s behavior, shifts in people’s and community’s needs, and shifts in our own thinking. It’s hard work.” With the many changes that have occurred in our society, community, and Club, RCCD’s approach to local granting also needs to change so the Club can deliver better on its mission. This has become abundantly clear to many Club members as they’ve observed such trends as a decrease in Club membership, greater demands on volunteers, fewer hours available for volunteering, greater and more complex community needs, a more competitive fundraising environment, and growing requirements for accountability, collaboration, and sophistication among granting and charitable organizations. Objectives of the Local Discretionary Granting Strategy: The Local Discretionary Granting Strategy aims to improve and enhance RCCD’s local granting programs, structures, and processes. Transparency, efficiency, a bottom-up approach to decision making, sustainability, and collaboration are just some of the objectives of the Strategy. It aims to build on the Club’s rich history and traditions, while also wisely investing to encourage community impact, a sense of Club purpose and pride, public profile, and Club member recruitment, engagement, and retention. Develop a platform for Members to work together supporting common causes and Building Community. What is the Local Discretionary Granting Strategy? The Strategy outlines the following for RCCD’s local discretionary granting approach: 1. What we do and why we do it (RCCD’s mission and vision) 2. How we do it (we pursue our mission and vision through our roles in granting, convening, learning, club member engagement, and fundraising) 3. What we focus on (our local priorities or focus areas, include: Early Childhood Literacy. Food Security, Education, Mental Wellness) 4. What guides our local discretionary granting work (our principles such as transparency, integrity, alignment, collaboration, sustainability, engagement, accountability, and impact) 5. How we help (through our granting programs, including Small Donations, Major Donations, Legacy Donations, and Early Childhood Literacy Donations, and through activities that support the Club to convene, Learn, engage members, and fundraise in its priority areas). The Strategy also outlines many specific “Strategic Directions” for RCCD to undertake from 2024-25 through 2026-27 that will help the Club to achieve the objectives of its local discretionary granting work. Stay Tuned! Stay tuned to future issues of the COG and other Club Communications to learn more about the Strategy, the Club’s focus areas, investments and activities the Club has undertaken in these priority areas, and the community impact we’re having! |
Recounting how his life took a dramatic turn for the better at age 35, he mentioned previous work related to home construction, founding a charity related to Alzheimers disease and his current work in leadership coaching. Understanding personal priorities is important to develop clarity in one’s life to develop good habits which drive good behaviour.
Crew plus Bill & Maggie Redmond 
