Rotary Foundations and Grants

Posted by John Ester 
on Jun 07, 2016
 
After providing the particulars on the hugely successful Bike Benzie event that she ran over the weekend, Kris gave us a refresher course on Rotary foundations and the grants that are available through them.
 
Kris talked about three foundations:  
  • the one operated by Rotary International that has assets of about $1 billion,
  • Rotary Charities, the foundation of the Traverse City noon club, which has assets of about $50 million, and
  • the Sunrise Rotary Foundation, which has assets of about $50,000.
The Rotary International Foundation has many funds, but the two of principal interest to us are the Annual ("SHARE") Fund and Polio Plus.  The SHARE Fund is the one used for grants to Rotary Clubs.  Individual Rotarians and Clubs contribute to the SHARE Fund, and 50% of that money comes back to the Districts from which the contributions were received.  This money in turn is made available to Clubs within the Districts in terms of:
  • District Local grants ($500-$3,500)
  • District International Grants ($1,000-$5,000)
  • International Grants (>$1,000)
A Club can apply for one District Grant and one District International Grant each year. The goal of District 6290 is to have its Clubs donate a total of $300,000 to the Annual Fund each year.  To encourage Clubs to give to the Annual Fund they must "pay to play."  This means that to eligible to receive a grant, a Club must contribute an average of $100 per member to the Share Fund.  A Club can make up the difference if its member contributions fall short.
 
Created when the TC noon club literally struck oil, Rotary Charities donates $1.2-$1.5 million a year.  It does so through through the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation Rotary Endowment Fund.  This fund makes grants available to Rotary Clubs and their members within the five-county area.  Thus, a Club can get a matching grant of up to $3,000 a year, which is what we have done for our 8th grade trip to MSU and CMU.  Individual Rotarians can get matching grants up to $250 for local charitable contributions.
 
The Sunrise Rotary Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization created by our Club while Bill Anderson was President.  For more information about the Fund, come to next week's meeting!