District Grants

Rotarian Peter Little, as a major Bequests Society member, travelled to Albury on Monday  30 October to attend an informal meeting  of   the District 9790 Grants  Committee.  In   attendance were DG Bernie Bott, PDG David Cooke (District Chair of Foundation), Brian  Petes (Grants  Committee  Chair) and Bruce Allen (Manager, The Rotary Foundation South Pacific & Philippines Office).

The meeting was to explore ways to possibly modify the Criteria for District Grants to make The Rotary Foundation SHARE program more attractive to major donors. Under

the SHARE program a major gift or bequest, or the perpetual earnings thereof, is shared between the World Fund and the District nominated by the donor. The donor may direct that the World Fund share be applied to specific projects or Areas of Focus but there is no mechanism at a District level, at least in  Australia, for a donor to  express any preference for the application of that share. In the past our Districts have not been the beneficiaries of such endowed funds.

Peter reported that the meeting was most productive and that revision of our District 9790 Criteria for District Grants is likely, hopefully as a model for other Districts to follow.