Our Club Member Doris Xie is the Executive Director of Finance for Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation. The Rotary Foundation received a four-star rating (the highest) from Charity Navigator in 2020 for the 13th year in a row! Less than 1% of charities rate that high. The Rotary Foundation helps Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace by improving health, providing quality education, improving the environment and alleviating poverty. This encapsulates the Areas of Focus for The Rotary Foundation. Of the funds collected through our dues and donated, The Rotary Foundation has five funds from which they help projects within our district and abroad. - The Annual Fund-SHARE is the primary source for local and international activities.
- The World Fund supports grants and program opportunities available to all Rotary districts.
- The Polio Plus Fund is Rotary's top philanthropic priority.
- The Disaster Relief Fund grants that meet the immediate needs related to natural disasters.
- The Endowment Fund ensures the long-term viability of the Foundation's grants and programs.
With the pandemic, funds from the disaster relief fund have been made available for PPE at hospitals. Polio workers are coordinating the outbreak response over seas. They are also educating communities about prevention tactics - wearing masks, washing hands, etc. Along with investigating cases of the virus as well as tracing contacts, they are training health workers. When it comes to the status of ending polio, there are only two countries left that are reporting new polio cases - Afghanistan and Pakistan, These two countries have wary cultures and unstable governments which makes it hard to complete the task. Rotary International is asking members to support The Rotary Foundation's Endowment 2.025 by 2025 campaign. The goal is to reach $2.025 billion by 2025. Doris provided a summary of the Foundation's expenses through February of this year: We thank Doris for her hard work! -mb |