The Rotary Foundation

Posted by Chris Woodruff 
on May 18, 2011
 
Investing less than $2 per week through the Rotary Foundation changes lives.
 

Worldwide, Rotary Foundation Matching Grants are saving and changing lives. Since the first Matching Grant  was awarded in 1965, more than US$335 million has been distributed through more than 30,000 grants.

This is a tremendous achievement for Rotarians, who have made these grants possible through their generous donations to the Annual Programs Fund , and dedicated their time and talent to help carry out projects that put Service Above Self.

By giving $100  a year -- less than $2 a week -- to the Annual Programs Fund through the Every Rotarian, Every Year  (EREY) initiative, Rotarians become part of the Foundation's mission to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.

Clean Water:

In many parts of the world, people lack access to clean water, leading to disease and death. More than 3.5 million people die from water-related diseases each year, and more than 40 percent of those deaths are due to diarrhea, which UNICEF lists as the second-leading childhood killer. Polio  also spreads through contaminated water.

Rotary club members have helped install 19,000 bio-sand filters, which make water safe to drink, through the Rotarian-led Children's Safe Water Alliance in the Dominican Republic. They've reached an estimated 100,000 people in 300 communities.

For seven years, more than 200 clubs in 18 districts in Canada, the Dominican Republic, the United States, and other Caribbean countries have supported the effort, as has the Foundation, with 30 Matching Grants.

Please consider giving as a Sustaining Member of the Rotary Foundation by contributing $100 this Rotary Year. You still have time to make that donation by going directly online to the Rotary International website. We no longer bill for Foundation giving through the club, partly to save administrative costs and because of IRS regulations.

Thanks so much for your support of the Foundation!

Please see Foundation Chairman Ken Sasaki or me for more information.

Together, as Rotarians, we are doing good work in the world.