In this February issue of Foundation Committee’s newsletter, we will cover endowing giving and one of the global grant projects that saves lives, an example of how our gifts, including Endowment gifts, can benefit the community in developing countries.
What is the Rotary Endowment?
The Endowment was created in 1982 to give future generations of Rotary members the resources they need to design and implement sustainable projects year after year.
While a gift to the Annual Fund helps people live better lives today, gifts to Rotary’s Endowment support the same life-changing programs forever.
What are Rotary’s endowment priorities?
- Basic education and literacy
- Community economic development
- Disease prevention and treatment
- Environment
- Maternal and child health
- Peacebuilding and conflict prevention
- Rotary Peace Centers
- SHARE
- Water, sanitation and hygiene
- World Fund
How does it work?
Contributions to Rotary’s Endowment are invested and professionally managed to provide a source of funding every year to support Rotary members’ local and global philanthropic work. As the Endowment grows, so does the good that Rotary members can do in the world.
With a gift of UK$25,000 or more to the Endowment, members or friends of Rotary may create a permanent legacy in their own name or in honour of a friend or family member. Rotary pools these gifts for investment purposes but maintains a separate accounting for each named endowed fund. Donors receive a personalized endowed fund certificate suitable for framing when their fund is established, as well as annual financial updates.
What is the investment objective of the Rotary Endowment?
The Rotary Foundation invests Endowment assets to provide funding for today’s programs while growing it to support Foundation programs in the future. Rotary seeks to generate an average annual investment return over time at least equal to the rate of inflation plus the average distribution rate.
How is the investment managed?
The Trustees of the Rotary Foundation are responsible for setting the investment policy. The Investment Committee is responsible for overseeing Rotary’s investments and the implementation of the investment policy, reviewing and monitoring investment results and recommending changes to the investment policy and asset allocation strategy. The office of investment is responsible for the daily management of the Endowment. External professional investment managers are appointed by the office of investment to invest the assets of the fund on behalf of The Rotary Foundation.
What’s the investment performance?
The Endowment’s investment return for Rotary Year 2023-2024 was +12% and the average annual rate of return between 2015 and 2024 is 6%. (Note 1)
What’s the spendable earnings?
The Endowment makes an annual distribution for programs and operating expenses. For Rotary year 2023-24, spendable earnings totaled $24.7 million, of which $19.2 million was used for program awards, $0.6 million for operations, $2.3 million for fund development, and $2.6 million for general administration expenses. (Note 1)
Building The Rotary Foundation Endowment: 2025 by 2025
Rotarians are working toward the goal of reaching US$1 billion in net assets and US$1.025 billion in commitment for future gifts, totaling US$2.025 billion for the Endowment by 2025.
In the year of 2025, let’s work hard and we give back. If you give today, Rotary can fulfill your charitable goals for generations to come. If you are interested in Endowment giving and would like to know more Endowment, please feel free to contact our Fundraising team. Sub Chair PP Franck Chan and DRFC PDG Wilson would be happy to share the idea with you.
Fighting for their First Breath – a global grant project
Location: Western Rural District of Sierra Leone
Area of focus: Maternal and child health
This is the real-life story of Banneh Dramay, a midwife work works at health facilities all across Western Rural District of Sierra Leone. “I went to one facility and the people on duty did not even recognize that I was a midwife,” she recalls. “They’d just done a delivery, and the baby was not crying. So they concentrated on the mom, and the baby was left alone. Immediately, I entered. I knew how to resuscitate the baby.”
As the mother screamed in panic, Daramy grabbed a self-inflating resuscitator and fitted it over the baby’s face.
“I used it to ventilate the baby. And within one minute, the baby started crying,” she says. “The mom had been crying and shouting, ‘Oh God, please save my baby! Please save my baby!’ And then she was so happy. That’s why, whenever I see a delivery, I stay until the end to see that the baby is safe.”
It didn’t take expensive equipment to save that baby’s life. A self-inflating resuscitator sells for about US$11. Daramy’s knowledge of neonatal resuscitation — and her quick thinking — made all the difference. She learned many of her skills through Helping Babies Breathe, a training program created by the American Academy of Pediatrics that she took part in through a Rotary global grant project.
Birth asphyxia, or the failure to breathe at birth, kills an estimated 900,000 infants globally each year. Although it accounts for less than 0.1% of newborn deaths in industrialized countries, it’s the leading cause of neonatal mortality in low- and middle-income countries, like Sierra Leone. Many newborns who aren’t breathing can be saved if health care workers begin resuscitation immediately, so it’s crucial for providers to learn how to respond as quickly as Daramy did.
Since 2022, Rotary members in Sierra Leone and North America have collaborated to offer the Helping Babies Breathe protocol to more than 650 nurses, midwives, and other health workers from all over Sierra Leone. The program was funded through a global grant co-sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of Palm Harbor, Florida, USA, and Freetown, Sierra Leone.
(Source: www.rotary.org/en/fighting-their-first-breath)
The District Rotary Foundation Committee takes this opportunity to wish you joy and good fortune in the Year of the Snake!
Note 1: Endowment fund financial report 2023-24 | Rotary International (www.rotary.org/en/endowment-fnd-financial-report#investments)