Today (November 8) we heard from the Lincoln South Rotary Club Chair for The Rotary International Foundation Joe Roberts. November is Foundation Month and we are gearing up for our annual campaign.
Every year in December and January, Lincoln South Rotary Club holds a campaign for contributions to The Rotary International Foundation. Joe will provide details of the campaign the first Friday in December.
But, as Joe has stated, he does not want to ask for donations until he knows that we understand what we are supporting.
The Rotary International Foundation regularly receives high ranking by Charity Navigator, receiving a 4-star rating for the last 12 years. Click here to read more. Some of the statements / reasons:
- World’s Outstanding Foundation
- Top 10 charity changing the world
- Careful oversight by Rotarians
- Reason – how collect and use contributions
- Use contributions for 3 years to earn – to offset administrative costs
- 91 cents of dollar goes toward programming - only 9% for administration
Rotary has been working with 6 Areas of Focus / Our Causes for the past several years. Though the titles may change, the areas are:
- Promoting Peace
- Fighting disease
- Providing clean water
- Saving mothers and children
- Supporting education
- Growing local economies
The Rotary International Foundation has two types of funds - the Endowment Fund and the Annual Programs Fund (our topic today).The Annual Programs Fund is the one that is used for on-going programs and is where most of our contributions go.
Another unique feature of The Rotary International Foundation is that 50% of everything that we give through our District comes back to our District for use as we wish. Our District has designated 1/2 of that go toward District Grant Projects (clubs doing projects in our communities) and the other 1/2 is used for Global Grants.
Our District currently has about $57,000 going with District Grant Projects and $300,000 in Global Grants at various stages.
Joe also pointed out how important it is that we continue our support of polio eradication. In 1988, when the Global Polio Eradication Initiative began, polio paralysed more than 1000 children worldwide every day. in 2013 there were 416 cases for the entire year, and in 2017 there were 22 cases for the year. Though it is better - it is not eradicated yet. There are still 2 countries that are polio endemic - Afghanistan and Pakistan.