Anthony Ohlsen, Rotary Club of Maryborough and District 9780 Rotary Foundation Chair. spoke via ZOOM, and with the aid of embedded videos gave an outline of the formation, history, achievements, opportunities and processes of The Rotary Foundation.

As November if TRF Month, there will be relevant information in the Bulletin each week, starting below.

For details of Anthony’s presentation read below.

 

Rotary Foundation Director Tim McLeod introduced PDG Anthony Ohlsen, Rotary Club of Maryborough and District 9780 Rotary Foundation Chair. He joined Rotary in 1994 and was District Governor in 2018-2019, the year of Maggie Dwyer’s Presidency. He has been Secretary at Maryborough for 8 years and was President in 2002-2003.

The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International is Rotary’s charity and Rotarians Charity of choice
 
The Rotary Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation, supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world. It is registered in the USA as an International Charitable Trust.
 
The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty. Its motto is simply “Doing Good in the World”.
 
Rotary clubs and Rotarians raise and contribute funds to The Rotary Foundation annually enabling humanitarian work to be done around the globe.  Clubs are regularly able to apply for use of these funds for local and international projects providing access to funding not otherwise achievable given their size.

 

The TRF is managed by a Board of sixteen Trustees who serve four year terms. Four of the Trustees must be Past Presidents of Rotary International. The General Secretary of Rotary International is also General Secretary of the TRF.

 

The present Trustees come from Australia, Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Guatemala, India, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Pakistan, Taiwan, and USA (3).

The Australian is Ian Riseley, a member of the Rotary Club of Sandringham (Melbourne), who was President of Rotary International in 2017-2018, and will be Chair of TRF Trustees in 2022-2023.

At the Atlanta, USA, convention of Rotary International in 1917, outgoing President Arch Klumph (Ohio, USA) proposed the formation of an endowment fund which began with a capital of $26.50 – progress was moderate until January 1947 when Paul Harris, founder of Rotary, died - Rotarians made a significant number of contributions to the TRF in memory of the Founder.

 

With prudent management and strong support from Rotarians, TRF now holds some US$1.2B in assets. In the year ended 30 June 2020, income exceeded $340M and expenditure $360M, including $154M on Polio eradication and $153M on grants.

 

It all adds up to “doing good in the world.”