OUR FOUNDATION – WHAT A BARGAIN!
By Frank Deaver
Rotary Club of Tuscaloosa, Alabama USA
 

     Doesn’t everyone like a bargain?  We encounter economic bargains in several ways as we shop for consumer products.  Here are some examples.
     • More for your money:  the traditional “baker’s dozen” is thirteen doughnuts for the price of twelve.
     • Cash Back: an automobile dealer advertises “cash-back” on the purchase of a new car.
     • Two-for-One: a grocery sale promotes ice cream, “buy one carton, get one free.”
     • Extended Warranty: a product may be guaranteed for a number of years of service, or even “for life.”

     But the business community has no monopoly on bargains. As RI President Bill Boyd wrote in the current issue of Rotarian Magazine, “Rotarians know the value of a good investment,” and “a dollar or a euro or a yen given to the Foundation can do much more than anyone might expect.”

     In recognition of Rotary Foundation Month, this is a good time to recognize the bargains available to Rotarians and Rotary Clubs.  Borrowing from the advertised bargains of the commercial world, we can apply those same examples to illustrate the bargains of the RI Foundation.

     More for your money.  Overhead expenses are normal and necessary in charity organizations and in most foundations – but not in Rotary!  Donations received by the Foundation go through a three-year investment cycle, with earnings paying for administrative costs.  Then the full amount of Rotarian contributions goes into educational and humanitarian programs.  Even more for your money – in years when investments perform well, more than 100 percent of contributions can be channeled into awards.

     Cash-back. When a district’s Foundation contributions are totaled each year, 50 percent of the Annual Programs Fund is allocated to a District Designated Fund (DDF), allowing the local district to decide how best to use that share of member contributions.  Those amounts may be designated to Ambassadorial Scholarships, Matching Grants for International Humanitarian Projects, Group Study Exchanges, and more.  Districts get “cash-back” for discretionary spending on Rotary programs of their choice.

     Two-for-One. Matching grants offer a Rotary Club not only two-for-one, but often four-for-one and even eight-for-one benefits.  If a club gives $1000 for a project in another country, a partner club there can match the contribution, doubling the impact.  Each club’s district may designate $1000 from DDF funds to match its club, thus an additional $2000.  And in some circumstances, RI may match the total from both clubs and their districts, with another $4000.  Wow!  A $1000 donation can turn into as much as $8000 for a humanitarian project in another country!

     Extended Warranty: Foundation contributions may be made either to the Annual Program Fund or the Permanent Fund.  The latter, as its name implies, is Rotary's endowment – a fund whose principal is never spent and investment earnings are channeled into programs. Its initial goal of $200 million has been surpassed, and the fund continues to grow even as its proceeds are put to work.  In the 2004-05 Rotary Year, more than $4.5 million of its earnings went into Foundation programs.

     Once again, the words of RIP Bill Boyd:  “The Rotary Foundation is a major reason Rotarians are able to accomplish so much.”  He added that Rotarians “do the most with what we have.”

     Bargains?  Just look to the Rotary Foundation!