The Foundation of Rotary by Raewyn Kirkman
A speech delivered by PDG and District Foundation Chair Raewyn Kirkman at the District 9930 Conference in Napier NZ Sunday May 8th 2016
Every time you get a bunch of Rotarians talking about Rotary, the conversation turns to membership.
In just such a discussion recently I commented that we don't get new members into our clubs just to chat with over a meal. We get new members into our clubs so there are more of us to do Rotary’s work. And that led me to suggest that things often make a lot more sense if we start our thinking with the end in mind – that the ultimate reason for us being here is to do good and change lives in our own communities and in communities around the world.
So that's why rather than talk about the ‘Rotary Foundation’, I want to talk about the ‘Foundation of Rotary’ – about the foundation of the Foundation. Because when you get back to basics, it is not about us, it's about them – the people we are here to make a difference for.
A foundation is the strong base upon which everything else is built. Our Foundation – the Rotary Foundation – is the strong base upon which the work of Rotary and Rotarians is built. While our clubs do great work locally, it is the Rotary Foundation that enables our work to be of the enormous scale and impact that it is. It is the Rotary Foundation that has taken great ideas at club level – like polio eradication or Group Study Exchange which started here in our own district, world-wide. It is the Rotary Foundation that enables Rotary to be about them, not just us. It is about changing their lives, even though at the same time it changes ours.
As District Chair of the Rotary Foundation, I often get told by our members that a Rotarian who is recognised as a Paul Harris Fellow once their personal giving reaches US$1000 – well that isn't a real PHF. And I know that some of you right now will be quietly thinking to yourself – I agree, it isnt.
About 18 months ago, a club president phoned me up – having just received a PHF sapphire in the mail from RI for a member of their club, to whom they had previously presented a PHF. The sapphire was a result of the fact that this member had achieved that $1,000 personal giving milestone. The president wanted to know if they should present the PHF to him at a club meeting and if so, what he should they say about it. And should they put ‘sapphire’ next to his name on their club PHF honours board.
I was a bit taken by surprise, as if his second PHF was in some way inferior to the first, and I said that to the president. He said that the first one was for making a difference in their local community, and this one was ‘paid for’.
I asked him if he didn’t think that the $1,000 that the Rotarian had contributed personally to the Rotary Foundation, wouldn’t make a difference in a local community somewhere in the world, in the same way as the $1,000 the club contributed for a ‘presented’ PHF.
That it might perhaps buy a year's school supplies for 250 children in a small village school in Vanuatu. I said that I thought that would make a difference for those kids in that community.
I asked him if he thought that the women living in Papua New Guinea, who attended a course on setting up their own small businesses so they could provide for their families – if they would think any less of the $1,000 that paid for that course because it came from an individual Rotarian rather than from club fundraising.
And I suggested that the 800 or so children who would be immunised against polio – they wont really mind if the $1,000 came from a generous Rotarian in our community, rather than a club.
I shared with him that I had seen personally the difference that a $1,000 Rotary Foundation district grant to build a preschool had made for the 300 people living on a small isolated island community in Fiji.Having realised that he had pushed one of my buttons, he put up his hands and surrended.
So I suggested that rather than criticise that Rotarian for ‘buying’ a PHF, they could consider celebrating that Rotarian’s commitment to doing good in a local community somewhere else in the world, which I am pleased to say they did.
In most of the world, around 80% of giving to the Rotary Foundation comes from personal giving and around 20% from club fundraising. Here in NZ it is totally the opposite – around 80% comes from clubs and 20% from generous individuals.
Now, I applaud clubs that work hard at their fundraising and direct some of that to the Rotary Foundation, and our ask in District 9930 is that every year clubs give 10% of their fundraising to the Annual Fund of the Rotary Foundation and 10% to the End Polio Now campaign. Sadly, nine clubs in our district last year, while happy to proudly tell prospective members about the wonderful work of Rotary around the world, did not support that work financially. If you are a Rotary club how can it be that your club does not give something to the Rotary Foundation? What is it that is preventing your club from giving to our own charity?
Now, I applaud clubs that work hard at their fundraising and direct some of that to the Rotary Foundation, and our ask in District 9930 is that every year clubs give 10% of their fundraising to the Annual Fund of the Rotary Foundation and 10% to the End Polio Now campaign. Sadly, nine clubs in our district last year, while happy to proudly tell prospective members about the wonderful work of Rotary around the world, did not support that work financially. If you are a Rotary club how can it be that your club does not give something to the Rotary Foundation? What is it that is preventing your club from giving to our own charity?
And what I find really hard to understand, is that despite New Zealand being the third most generous nation in the world, of the 1,700 or so members in our district fewer than 300 – one in six - will decide to give personally to our own charity this year – give anything – even $10, and that only about 300 of them will give $100NZ or more.
I wonder if for some reason, Rotarians in NZ seem to think that personal giving isn't the right thing to do, or do they simply not think about it at all? Perhaps they think that giving is just the domain of clubs? If you are a Rotarian, how can it be that you do not give something to the Rotary Foundation? I talk all the time about the amazing work that Rotary does around the world and I feel like I can legitimately do that because I have a stake in that work. Because I personally give to the Rotary Foundation – our charity - every year.
Yes, I have heard the argument that if you give your time to help with fundraising that that is the same as giving personally, and I accept that to a degree, however, a personal financial stake in the amazing work of Rotary really does say “I personally believe in the work of Rotary” in a way that nothing else can.
As we approach 100 years of the Rotary Foundation, it is worthwhile reflecting on what the Rotary Foundation means to Rotary International and to Rotarians around the world but more importantly what it means to the people in every part of the globe whose lives are changed by projects funded by the Rotary Foundation – funded by those of us who make that simple decision to give to our own charity.
To the communities and individuals who are the beneficiaries of the Rotary Foundation’s work – it is the foundation of a new way of life for them - the foundation of education and health, the foundation of a stronger community, the foundation of a better future.
And the foundation of the foundation – is giving.
If you haven’t given to the Rotary Foundation yet, can I ask you what is preventing you from doing that? If you can afford the registration fee for this conference, you can afford to give to the Rotary Foundation. If you can fill out the registration form for this conference, you can fill out a donor form to give.
A CEO I worked for once used to encourage us to always think about what happens after what happens next. So can I leave you with this thought.
Imagine you go home from conference and what happens next is that instead of going out for a slap up meal, buying a new pair of shoes, or grabbing a coffee every morning on your way to work – what happens next is you give personally to the Rotary Foundation. What happens after what happens next – that is the foundation of Rotary.
PDG Raewyn Kirkman
DRFC District 9930
DRFC District 9930