By Bill Maule
If you were among those who came to the Kingston Open House and stopped by Kingston Rotary’s table, you could have found the answer to the question, “What is Rotary?”
Rotary constitutes some 34,000 clubs located in nearly every country, all part of Rotary International and all dedicated to providing service to communities at home and abroad. But now, here is a related question: “What is the Rotary Foundation?”
The short answer is that the foundation exists to help Rotary clubs carry out those community service projects.
The foundation is a not-for-profit corporation funded entirely by contributions from members and friends of Rotary. Kingston Rotary Club members have been generous in their contributions to the foundation, donating more than $73,000 since the club’s founding in 2004.
The foundation retains the contributions from all sources, investing them prudently for three years. The income from those investments pays for nearly all the foundation’s expenses. This policy has helped the foundation satisfy all 20 of the Better Business Bureau’s standards and gain top ratings from both Charity Watch and Charity Navigator.
The donated funds are used to provide matching grants to a club or group of clubs for service projects. For example, Kingston Rotary worked with a club in Belize, using foundation grants that more than tripled its funds to provide clean water to a very remote village in Belize. There is no need to travel that far to see the results of another Kingston Rotary project. A foundation grant doubled the club’s money to help build the popular playground in the Village Green, right here in Kingston.
On a global scale, the foundation provides impressive amounts of funds for matching grants.
For this Rotary year, the foundation has budgeted more than $103 million for matching grants. In addition, it has continued its support of polio eradication efforts. The budget for this year provides some $116 million for this purpose. The program has already reduced the incidence of polio by 99 percent. The World Health Organization has just announced that polio has been eliminated from Nigeria. That leaves only Afghanistan and Pakistan, now the only countries with recent polio infections. We are indeed close to ridding the planet of this devastating disease.
November is Rotary Foundation month, and Kingston Rotary celebrates the foundation by renewing its strong support. At the end of the Rotary year on June 30, every member then on record with the foundation had made at least one contribution. Of our 39 members, 32 were honored as sustaining members and have donated at least $100. All our members are proud to have played a small part in the foundation’s worldwide service to the community and the world.
Kingston Rotary Club welcomes new members. Meetings are on Wednesday at noon, usually at the North Kitsap Fire & Rescue station on Miller Bay Road in Kingston. November meetings will take place at Bayside Church on Barber Cutoff Road in Kingston. Rotarians gather at 11:45 to socialize before the lunch and business meeting.
We would love to have you join us. If you would like to attend a meeting to learn more about Rotary, contact Nancy Martin at nanjmartin@mac.com.
