The Rotary Club of Stourbridge
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The Rotary Club of Stourbridge
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Chairman: P.P. Mike McConville Secretary: Andy Cartwright Foundation Committee Report to Club Assembly Wednesday 3th June 2009
Each year at Club Assembly the Foundation Chairman sets out, more or less, the same set of aims for the coming Rotary year. This in many ways is inevitable because the role of the Foundation Committee is to promote and support Rotary’s own charity, The Rotary Foundation. This year will be no exception and we will therefore: 1. Promote Rotary International’s own charity, The Rotary Foundation and seek support for it from individual members. 2. Make recommendations to Club Council on the extent of the Club’s support for the Rotary Foundation. 3. Encourage the Club to take an active part in the Rotary Foundation’s educational and humanitarian programmes, in particular the Group Study Exchange and the Ambassadorial Scholar programmes. 4. Provide information to the Club’s other service committees on the grants available from the Rotary Foundation and act as a conduit to those committees so that they may take advantage of these funds in support of their work It is also a tradition in this Club that each of the service committees undertakes some form of fund raising in support of the President’s charities. This year the Foundation Committee will work with Old Swinford Hospital School and with other service committees on fund raising events. Last year you will remember that the Rotary International Board of Directors accepted a challenge from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to match the $100 million grant they have given Rotary for the final eradication of polio. Rotary agreed to match their grant with $100 million raised by Rotarians. In January 2009 Bill Gates announced that his Foundation had decided to give Rotary an additional US$225 million, making their contribution through Rotary for the eradication of polio a total of US$325 million. He also challenged Rotary to raise a second US$1 million making the Rotary contribution US$2 million and we accepted the challenge. Last year RI asked: 1. That every Club has polio eradication as part of their annual programme in each of the years 2008, 2009 and 2010. 2. Each club meets the Gates Foundation challenge of $1,000 per club per year. 3. All Rotarians to be advocates for the polio eradication programme District 1060 has chosen to interpret item 2 so that there is a level playing field between large and small clubs. They propose that every club raise a minimum of £16 per member per year raised through community based fund raising events. This figure has now doubled to £32 per club member and that means that in each of the three years Stourbridge needs to raise a minimum of £2,250. The Club has accepted the Gates challenge, as interpreted by District 1060, and undertakes to raise, in addition to routine activities, a minimum of £2,250 per year in support of polio eradication.
History The first Rotary club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, was formed by Paul P Harris on 23rd February 1905 and by 1921 Rotary clubs had been established on six continents. The Rotary Club of Stourbridge was chartered on 1st June 1922, the same year that the name Rotary International was introduced. By 1925 Rotary had grown to 200 clubs with more than 20,000 members. In 1917 the then RI President, Arch C Klumph, purposed that an endowment be set up “for the purpose of doing good in the world”. Five Trustees were appointed to “hold, invest, manage and administer all of its property …… as a single trust for the furtherance of the purpose of RI”. The first donation to The Foundation was $26.50 and two years later it made its first grant of $500 to the International Society for Crippled Children. By 1928 the endowment fund had grown to over $5,000 and it was renamed The Rotary Foundation. The Great Depression and World War II both impeded The Foundation’s growth but, after the war, the need for lasting world peace generated great interest in its development and money poured in. After Paul Harris died in 1947 the Paul Harris Memorial Fund was created to further increase funds. The Rotary Foundation maintains three funds; the Permanent Fund, the Annual Programs Fund and Polio Plus Fund and together these funds had net assets on 30th June 2008 of US$691.7 million. In 2007/2008 the total contribution to The Foundation was US$245.7 million. This came from the 1.2 million Rotarians in over 32,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and from friends of Rotary such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Rotary Foundation Funds - Income Currently there are three Foundation Funds:
Contributions sent to The Foundation can be directed to any one of the three funds. Permanent Fund — To Secure Tomorrow The Permanent Fund is Rotary’s endowment. The principal is never spent, and a portion of the earnings are directed toward Foundation programs. Donations to the Permanent Fund can be outright gifts, securities, bequests, or life-income agreements. Donations are encouraged by offering the opportunity for Rotarians and others to be recognised as a Benefactor, member of the Bequest Society, Major Donor or member of the Arch C Klumph Society. You may become a Benefactor of The Rotary Foundation by making the Permanent Fund a beneficiary in your estate plans or by donating US$1,000 or more to the fund outright. Those who donate US$10,000 or more can become members of the Bequest Society. Major Donors contribute more than US$10,000 and those who donate US$250,000 or more are members of the Arch C Klumph Society. On 30th June 2008, the end of the 2007/2008 Rotary year, the net assets of the Permanent Fund was US$207.9 million and during the year a total of $13.9 million was donated. However, investment losses during the year amounted to US$18.5 million. Annual Programs Fund — For Support Today The Annual Programs Fund is the primary source of support for the programs of The Rotary Foundation. Money from the Annual Programs Fund is spent every year on Foundation programs, such as Group Study Exchange, Ambassadorial Scholars, District Simplified Grants, and Matching Grants. Rotarians are encouraged to make financial contributions to The Rotary Foundation annually. The Club’s contribution goes to the Annual Program Fund and contributions earn points towards Paul Harris Fellowships. The Rotary Foundation’s funding cycle uses contributions for programs three years after they are received. The three-year cycle gives districts time to plan programs and select participants and allows The Foundation to invest the contributions. The earnings from those investments pay for general administration and fund development expenses. Contributions to the Annual Programs Fund during 2007/2008 were a record US$114.8 million with the best country, Hong Kong, reaching an average US$227 per Rotarian.. The total from the UK was US$6.463 million, an average of US$69 per Rotarian and that for District 1060 was $130,764, an average of $70.99 per Rotarian. Our Club contributed US$1,691, an average of US$24.51 per member. RI has a slogan “Every Rotarian Every Year” with a US$100 per capita goal, however, District 1060 has set a local target of US$75 per Rotarian. Polio Plus Fund During the 2007/2008 Rotary year the Polio Plus fund received US$114.1 million that included the initial US$100 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and US$3.5 million from the Google Foundation.
The Foundation Programs - Expenditure At present in any Rotary year the interest from the Permanent Fund and the appropriate years Annual Program money is used to support The Foundations humanitarian and educational programs. This money is divided on a 50/50 basis between a World Fund, managed by RI and District Designated Funds, managed by the districts. Then through a system called SHARE this money is divided between the various program areas; Ambassadorial Scholarships, Matching Grants, Group Study Exchanges, and other Foundation programs awards and activities. Each districts’ contribution from three years before is divided in half and one half goes to the World Fund and the other half is the District Designated Fund. Currently The Foundation uses the World Fund portion to pay for the worldwide programs available to all Rotary districts, such as Group Study Exchange, Matching Grants, and 3-H Grants ( Health, Hunger and Humanity ). The District Foundation Committee uses the District Designated Fund to fund District Simplifier Grants and other educational and humanitarian activities selected through SHARE.
A pictorial representation of The Foundation funding system is shown above. and an example of the District 1060 SHARE document is shown at the end of this paper.
The Foundation Programs The Rotary Foundation supports a wide range of educational and humanity programs that include opportunities for Matching Grants, District Simplified Grants and Volunteer Service Grants. Educational Programs · Ambassadorial Scholarships Provide scholarships to students who serve abroad as ambassadors of goodwill to improve international understanding. - Academic-Year Scholarships for one academic years of study abroad. - Multi-Year Scholarships for two years of degree orientated study abroad. - Cultural Scholarships for either three or six months of intensive language studies abroad. - Scholarship Fund Pool for Low-Income Countries offer Ambassadorial Scholarships to individuals from low-income countries on a world competitive basis. · Rotary Grants for University Teachers Provide grants to higher-education faculty to teach at colleges/universities in low-income countries. Builds understanding and development while strengthening higher education in low-income countries. · Rotary Centres for International Studies Provide Rotary World Peace Fellowships to individuals pursuing a master’s degree program in international relations, peace, conflict resolution, and related subjects or professional development certificate in peace and conflict studies at one of the seven Rotary Centres for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution · Group Study Exchange Enable an exchange of teams of outstanding young non-Rotarian business and professional people between districts in different countries. Group Study Exchange (GSE) teams may have special focus, such as a single vocation, humanitarian concerns, or neighbouring country issues Humanitarian Grants Program · Health, Hunger and Humanity (3-H) Grants Fund long-term (two- to four-year) integrated sustainable development projects to improve health, alleviate hunger, or enhance development through self-help activities. TRF (The Rotary Foundation) provides $100,000-$300,000. · Matching Grants Assist in funding humanitarian service projects in cooperation with Rotarians in another country. TRF provides a 1:1 match of DDF(District Designated Fund) and a 0.5:1 match of sponsor cash contributions. · District Simplified Grants Support the service activities or humanitarian endeavors of districts. A maximum of 20 percent of DDF which is based on 50 percent of giving from three years prior · Volunteer Service Grants Support travel of qualified Rotarians and their spouses to plan a project or provide direct service in Rotary countries. TRF provides a flat grant award: $3,000 for an individual traveler and $6,000 for groups up to five people.
More detailed information on all The Foundation programs are available in The Rotary Foundation Quick Reference Guide that can be downloaded from the RI web site at www.rotary.org. The Future of The Foundation In anticipation of The Rotary Foundations anniversary in 2017, the Trustees have set out a development plan to move The Foundation towards its second century of service. The plan updates The Foundations mission and creates a more effective and efficient way to help Rotarians develop diverse projects with greater impact and sustainable outcomes. In six years time the arrangements for the distribution of the Rotary Foundation funds are to be significantly changed. In 2009/2010 one hundred “trial districts” will be nominated. Year 2 will be training and years 3, 4 and 5 will trial the new system. Year 6 the new system will operate for all districts. The District Foundation Committee has put District 1060 forward as a trail district. The Foundation’s new mission and motto, that have been approved by both The Foundation Trustees and the RI Board and endorsed by the Council on Legislation, are: Mission THE MISSION OF The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education and the alleviation of poverty. Motto Doing Good in the World Grant structureDuring the all three years of the pilot phase Pilot districts will work with Rotary Foundation District Grants and Rotary Foundation Global Grants
Rotary Foundation District GrantsRotary Foundation District Grants are block grants made to districts for up to 50 percent of their District Designated Fund (DDF). District grants offer the flexibility to respond quickly to immediate needs or to plan projects with clubs locally or in other countries. These grants can be used for a wide variety of activities, including, but not limited to, funding scholarships, supporting vocational teams, sponsoring volunteer service, providing disaster relief, and carrying out community and international service projects. Pilot districts may sponsor district grant projects with clubs in nonpilot districts.
Rotary Foundation Global GrantsRotary Foundation Global Grants support larger, international projects with sustainable, high-impact outcomes in one of six areas of focus that correspond to the Foundation’s mission :
Clubs and districts can either create their own global grant projects in the areas of focus or sponsor packaged global grants developed by The Rotary Foundation in cooperation with its strategic partners.
Global grants that are developed by clubs and districts will receive a match from the Foundation's World Fund. These grants can be used to sponsor scholars or vocational training teams studying or working in the areas of focus or to develop large-scale humanitarian projects with pilot clubs and districts in other countries. Pilot districts may not sponsor global grant projects with clubs in nonpilot districts. The packaged global grants will include strategic partnerships with organizations that have expertise in the areas of focus. For example, a packaged grant project to provide several neighboring villages with access to clean water might be developed by The Foundation in conjunction with a non-governmental organisation that addresses clean water issues, which would provide technical expertise or financial support. The World Fund and the strategic partners will provide 100 percent of the funding for packaged global grants.
Business cycleAll Rotary Foundation grant applications will be accepted throughout the year. Districts may receive one district grant per Rotary year and will be encouraged to submit applications during the planning year for immediate payment at the start of the program year; however, applications may be submitted during either year. Within 12 months of receiving the grant, districts must submit a final report to the Foundation listing the distribution of the funds.
For club- and district-developed global grants, clubs and districts will submit a brief proposal before a formal application is submitted to determine whether the activity fits within an area of focus. This process is designed to increase the acceptance rate of grant applications. Once a formal application is submitted, the Foundation may require additional levels of assessment, depending on the award amount or complexity of the project. Only club- and district-developed global grants of US$100,000 or more will require approval by the Trustees.
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