Tony Jannetta - An Understanding of the Rotary Foundation 18.00 for 18.30 meal @ Westlands Zoom @ 19.15 for 19.30

ROTARY FOUNDATION

Rotarian Tony Jannetta, Rotary District 1010’s Rotary Foundation Advocate, gave Club members a very valuable reminder of the background to the formation and the current operation of the Rotary Foundation. Established in 1917, the Foundation has been at the heart of Rotary’s grant-aiding programme that supports a wide variety of projects worldwide. Of special significance in this context has been Rotary’s support for the End Polio Now initiative. Working with the World Health Organisation and other national and international partners, Rotarians worldwide have invested $2.1 billion to support the drive to free the world of this disease. As a result of the extraordinarily successful programme, since 1980 three billion children have been inoculated against polio, with a total worldwide of just five cases recorded in 2021 in two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan.  

But, Tony emphasised, the Foundation has also been a very active advocate and supporter of a wide range of global and district initiatives. These are set out in Rotary’s Seven Areas of Focus: water, sanitation and hygiene; disease prevention and treatment; maternal and child health; basic education and literacy; community economic development; peace building and conflict prevention; and the most recent Area of Focus: protecting the environment.  To fund projects supporting these Areas of Focus, Rotarians worldwide contribute to the Annual Fund, the  primary source for these grants.  In 2019-20, Tony reported, Rotary Foundation provided $130 million for 1,850 grants to enable large-scale international activities responding to these Areas of Focus, and also to support smaller-scale Rotary district grants.  In the latter category, he noted the Club’s success in being awarded a £20,000 grant to fund the supply of PPE equipment for Strathcarron Hospice. 

A further Rotary Fund – the Endowment Fund – has just over $1 billion professionally invested, with the annual earnings providing financial support for projects.  The target is to increase the value of this Fund to $2 billion which would generate some $50 million annually in earnings to support Rotary’s activities.

In addition, Rotary funds six Peace Centres around the world aimed at advancing knowledge and world understanding among potential future leaders.  In 2019/20 69 fellows from 35 countries began their studies.  Since the programme began in 2002, Rotary Peace Centres have trained more than 1,400 Fellows who now work in more than 115 countries.

As a very reassuring measure of Rotary Foundation’s performance, Tony revealed that, out of 8,000 organisations worldwide assessed by Charity Navigator in 2021, Rotary Foundation had been placed fifth in terms of its efficiency, financial performance, accountability and transparency.

Speaker’s Host Iain Fraser thanked Tony for a valuable insight into Foundation’s achievements that must, he said, serve as an encouragement to members in their support of its vital work.