Donating to the Rotary Foundation

The Rotary Foundation is Rotary’s own charity and all Rotarians are encouraged to donate to it.

This can be by direct personal donations to RF(UK) which can benefit from GiftAid, giving through your club or helping your club to fund raise for Foundation. Covenanting a quarterly or annual donation is a tax efficient method in the UK; a contribution of £20 per quarter, made by way of a standing order with a gift aid declaration, is a painless way of donating and helping your club to achieve a target of $100 per member.

Go to: www.rotarygbi.org to discover ways in which you as an individual can support Foundation. The more money that is donated to the annual fund, the more comes back in grants to support club directed projects. You can make your giving efficient by enabling Rotary GB&I to claim Gift Aid on your donations from your club by the Club Treasurer filling in the appropriate forms obtainable from Rotary GB&I 

Why not become a Sustaining Member by giving $100 per year via a standing order or a Paul Harris Society (PHS) member giving $1000 per year via standing order? Both schemes attract recognition and a special lapel badge. 

A bequest or a legacy in your will is also possible. As can be imagined the sums raised are considerable, amounting to many millions of pounds/dollars each year. All sums collected are used entirely in funding the various projects carried out by Rotarians supported by the trust fund. 

We aim to: Encourage contributions to the Annual Fund of $100 per Rotarian, through wider understanding of the benefits of our Foundation, and with higher uptake of sustaining membership and personal donations in addition to larger gifts through bequests.

Donor Recognition

In order to encourage regular and large donations Rotary has a number of recognition schemes:

Individual Recognition

·         Rotary Foundation Sustaining Member  is a member who makes an individual commitment to donate $100 to the Foundation - simply complete the RF(UK) Standing Order form.

·         Paul Harris Fellow PHF) over most of the world a PHF is simply a Rotarian who has donated $1000 personally to the Annual Fund over a period of time; however, in Rotary GB&I it is more normally awarded by clubs in recognition of   exceptional service.  Recognition points which can be exchanged for PHF awards are listed against clubs in the Individual and Club Recognition Reports at Reports | My Rotary

·         Paul Harris Society – to qualify for membership of the Paul Harris Society Rotarians must give an undertaking to donate $1000 to The Rotary Foundation via the Annual Fund, PolioPlus or an approved Foundation grant each year.  Rtn Irvin Metcalf (Grantham Sunrise) is the Team Member responsible for PHS and other major donor activity.  A leaflet giving more details of the PHS is available here;  Rotarians should be note that donations should be routed through RF(UK) rather than direct to the Foundation in the USA to make best use of UK tax concessions for charitable donations.

·         Major Donors – recognition is granted to Rotarians who make major donations or bequests to The Rotary Foundation at various levels as shown at  Recognition | Rotary International

·         Legacies - Information concerning Legacies is available at the RF(UK) Legacy leaflet

 Club Recognition

Rotary Foundation’s Trustees present banners  each year to:

·       The 3 top donating clubs to the Annual Fund in each District

·        Clubs with 100% Every Rotarian Every Year (EREY) members with the club achieving donations of $100 per member and with every Rotarian personally giving at least $25:

•        Clubs which are 100%  Foundation  Giving  Clubs (to qualify clubs must have achieved an average of US$100 in per capita giving and 100 percent participation, with every dues-paying member contributing at least $25 to any or all of the following during the Rotary year: Annual Fund, PolioPlus Fund, approved global grants, or Endowment Fund). 

The Trustees present Certificates of Appreciation each year to:

• ·         Clubs which have donated more than $1500 to the Polio Fund will receive a certificate

If clubs wish to receive recognition as EREY or 100% Foundation Giving clubs, Treasurers must list the donations made by individual members when transmitting donations to RF(UK) using the form at:  RFUK_contribution-form_2021_writeable.pdf (rotarygbi.org)

 the donations are then listed in the Foundation Banner Recognition Report and in due course having met the criteria the club will receive a Trustees award.

How to get donations to The Rotary Foundation

The Rotary Foundation (UK) is tasked with the major function of collecting donations from Rotary members in the UK in the most tax-efficient manner possible and transmitting them to The Rotary Foundation in the US in the most economical manner.

Individual Donations

Rotarians are invited to make donations to the Rotary Foundation by several means:

·        Through Club Treasurers, which is the simplest manner; however, without a direct request to the Treasurer individual donations are unlikely to be attributed to individual Rotarians and thus qualify for personal recognition points.

·        Direct by cheque or bank transfer – just complete the form at: RFUK_contribution-form_2021_writeable.pdf (rotarygbi.org)  and either post it or email it to RF(UK)

·         By Standing Order – individual donations can be collected by using the RF(UK) Standing Order

·         By Virgin Giving via the Rotary GB&I website ; these donations do not qualify for recognition points.

Club Donations

Treasurers should notify the donations to RF(UK) by using the  RF(UK) contribution form at:  RFUK_contribution-form_2021_writeable.pdf (rotarygbi.org)

NB  Please note that donations should not be passed to District Rotary Team members.