What the Rotary Foundation Does with your Dollars… 

This is the season for giving. ALL ROTARIANS have much to be thankful for. From the great little TRF of RI FACT SHEET that I give out when I visit clubs, remember the PROGRAMS that your contributions support.

Polio Plus
The 900 Million dollars ROTARIANS have given since 1985 has reduced Polio by 99+% and as the ads say “we are this close” holding a thumb and index finger an inch apart. Rotary’s $200 million dollar challenge in response to the Gates Foundation challenge for polio eradication. As the total was over $194 million last month we may have already reached that goal. BUT we still have that last percent of POLIO eliminate and that is expensive.

The big Health Hunger and Humanity grants
There were 7 given in 2009-10 for 1.4 million. Our Sierra Leone WELL project was that size.

Matching Grants
Our district is one of the leaders in the world with projects primarily in Africa and Mexico and India. Worldwide there were 2215 for $34.9 million last year. In addition we have many projects in Indiana we have used to call District Simplified Grants

Rotary Peace Scholars 
We will have TWO of the 60 new fellows at Rotary Centers for International Studies next year.

Ambassadorial Scholarships
We continue to have one or two graduate scholars studying overseas.

To do all this we need your support of the Rotary Foundation Annual Fund. Please help us raise our EVERY ROTARIAN EVERY YEAR (EREY) percentage by giving some amount. Last year over 1000 of our members took the next step and became SUSTAINING members with gifts of $100 or more. But wait (as the TV ads say) if you give $100-500 before December 31 the district will match that with recognition points towards your next Paul Harris Fellow award and I will give you the highly coveted annual sustaining member sticker for your Rotary name badge.

PDG Bing Pratt,
District Annual Fund Chair