AGM Fundraising report 2016

Rotary Club of West Fife

AGM Fundraising Report                                  29 March 2016

Fundraising in Rotary has always been a matter of compromise and in particular this is very true within our own club.  My view is that Rotary is not a fundraising organisation.  It is a fellowship organisation set up originally by Paul Harris and his mates to help less fortunate people, specifically in their own vicinity.

Today, some consider fund raising to be of extreme importance, even vital to the success of any club while others feel there is far too much fund raising activity and concentration should be on other things.  Thereby hangs the dilemma I have faced over the many years I have been involved. 

I have been through years where there were criticisms from both camps.  Indeed I started out in the former and eventually, with experience and knowledge drifted into the latter.  Over the past few years my philosophy was one of compromise and the old maxim – “if it aint broke, don’t fix it”.  It has worked.

The committee has never failed to reach its obligation to raise money for the demands set every year and our club has punched well above its weight in terms of contributions either to charities or projects of choice.  Importantly our financial support for the main Rotarian charities such as Polio Plus and The Foundation has been quite exceptional pro rata.

This past year has been one of great interest on the fund raising front because we have succeeded in maintaining our general standard of totally adequate fund raising with our two main events of the year and have embarked on some exciting individual international events which were off the scale.

The two main events are the AmAm Golf Classic held in May, driven by George Primrose and the Ultimate Quiz in November driven by Tom Pettigrew.  They have both worked very well as did the Quiz in November.   We expect the AmAm in May to be an equally successful event.  Both events are known for their social enjoyment as well as for fund raising – always an advantage.

Naturally, they couldn’t have succeeded without the full support from club members some of whom worked very hard and I take this opportunity to thank everyone and particularly George and Tom for their magnificent efforts.

Having said that, we have definitely felt the effects of financial belts tightening, certainly from the corporate sector over the past few years and it is much tougher now to get participating teams for such events.  Consequently it now takes much more effort to achieve the same results as in the past and everyone needs to work just that little bit harder in attracting teams for the events. 

This will be evident in the forthcoming AmAm Golf Classic and I ask every member to do his ultimate best to attract new teams for the event and to give George the full support the event deserves.

Over the past year, the club also created great interest in Malawi with innovations from Alex E-W and funds were raised and donated for the projects.  This, I’m sure, will be a subject which the International Committee will mention.

Moving on to next year, George will be taking over from me as Fundraising Convenor and I wish him and his committee good luck and God Speed.  Perhaps it is time for a complete re-think on the concept ahead.  Knowing George the Club will continue on its pattern of successful fundraising and compromise which everyone will enjoy.

John Stirling

Fundraising Convenor