I recently had the opportunity to attend the Zone Institute for Zones 29 and 25B in Minneapolis and I have to say it was a great learning experience. I came away with a better knowledge of the workings of the Foundation, it’s fantastic accomplishments and the challenges we face as we head into the future.
Through your generosity and the generosity of Rotarians around the world “Our” Rotary Foundation raised $145.1 million in donations to the annual fund during the 2021-2022 Rotary year. These funds will be returned to the districts around the world in the form of District Designated funds or DDF in 3 years. Our District received $88,565.17 in DDF from the 2019-20 Rotary year of which half goes towards our District grants and half goes toward Global grants, matching the dollars raised by our clubs. Not all bad for a COVID year.
Unfortunately, the world fund has experienced unprecedented demand in the past year due to increased demand for global grants, COVID relief grants and the increase in funds donated to the disaster fund due to the war in Ukraine. Because of these demands, the trustees of the foundation decided to limit the match from the World Fund to 80% of the DDF contributed by the district to the grant in order to stretch World Fund dollars.
I know it seems as though nonprofits are always asking you for money and Rotary is no exception, but I learned several other surprising statistics during the institute. Do you know that only 33.6% of all Rotarians worldwide contributed to the Foundation? Imagine the good we could do in the world if every Rotarian gave something. Our District did somewhat better at 46% overall but we can do much better. If each non giving Rotarian in the District gave $25.00 or $2.08 per month (EREY) we would raise an additional $23,825 to do good in the world. If these members were to reach sustaining member level of $100 per member ($1.92 per week), we would increase contributions by $95,300!
I want to say thank you to all the generous District Rotarians who donated to the foundation last year, all 805 of us who raised a total of $387,602 in total contributions last year. As a District we have raised $7,542,866 in total contributions to the Foundation since its inception! Thank you to everyone who has ever donated to the foundation. Remember, November is “Foundation Month” a time to celebrate all the great things we do as an organization, District and Club. Please reach out to me if you would like information on your club’s giving or ideas on how to do more.
Mick McKinley - DRFC 2022-2025