President's Message - Jan. 31, 2014

Let’s take a little closer look at what the Rotary Foundation is and how it works.  There always seems to be some veil of confusion but I am telling you it’s as simple as your contributions to your church or many of the other more common charities.  The Paul Harris society is a group of Rotarians who have given $1,000 or more to the Foundation.  They go together.  One and the same.  It’s just a way to recognize and say thank you for the larger donors.  At this week’s meeting we will have our District Governor Blake McBurney and our District Paul Harris Chairman Sam Ainsworth joining us to recognize the next level of Paul Harris which is Rotarians who have committed to giving $1,000 every year.  That’s less than $90 a month and these members will have achieved what is known as a Paul Harris Sustaining Member.  Our club Paul Harris Chairman John Hipes has done a great job of gaining support at this level and we will see those that have made the commitment this Friday.

OK here is a quick break down on the Foundation.  In this message I am  going to tell you how it works and this Friday John Hipes is going to show you how it works.

The foundation collects the donations from us and then saves them up for three years at which time we submit a request to get the funds back to apply them to our projects.  It’s a very cool set up and a bit complicated at times but for the sake of this discussion- we give them the money, wait three years and get it back as it is applied to our grant.  There are three types of grants we can request to use that money.

District Grants fund smaller, short term activities that address the needs in our community and communities worldwide.  Each Rotary district gets to choose which projects it will fund.

Global Grants support large international activities that have sustainable, measurable outcomes in one or more of our areas of focus.  Rotarians create their own projects and carry them out.

Packaged Grants are designed by Rotary and our strategic partners.  They fund activities that are similar to those for global grants but the design and framework has already been done.

If I have convinced you to read this far maybe you have an interest and the ability to commit $84 a month to help fund the projects your club engages in every year.  If this is the case please contact me or John Hipes and we will include you in Fridays presentation.  Thank you for your time.

Yours in Rotary,

Dan

“The risk of doing nothing is the greatest risk of all.”