Donations are the life blood of Rotary and fundraising is our opportunity to make a greater impact via Global Travelers. Since our inception in 2021, we have raised over $29,000.
With the generous contributions of our full and associate members to our Global Travelers Foundation (GTF), we have been able to support 15 international projects, five of which were initiated by club members. These include our health clinic and toilets in Kenya, our water filter project in Colombia, our liver cancer project in Egypt, and most recently our STEM for girls in India project. We are making a difference in the world! Learn more about our grants.
The Foundation and Grants Committee oversees the Global Travelers Foundation account and helps make decisions about how funds are spent. We review grant requests from club members and other Rotary clubs and send our recommendation to the Executive Board, who has the final vote on all grants.
As we see continued needs around the world and an increase in requests for funding Rotary projects, we must continue to replenish and increase funds at our club’s disposal. Our club has now grown to over 140 members. Working together, pooling our resources, and channeling our energy, we can accomplish great things. Members can donate to our Foundation at any time using the form on our website. To galvanize giving, our committee is exploring fundraising ideas appropriate for our unique virtual club. Please tell us what you think of the fundraising ideas below. For those of you into detail, you can find more explanation of the options below the form.
A few reminders about the Global Travelers Foundation (GTF):
- Donations are tax deductible within the US
- Both associate and full members can donate
- Small service projects now have the added option for direct donations
- There is no mandated donation amount
We Want to Raise More Money to Make a Difference in the World. Tell Us What Fundraising Methods You Support.
More about the fundraising options:
- Charge non-members to participate in a Global Travelers trip. In our trips to date, the participants have been primarily club members with a few family and friends. Although we encourage non-members to join, we have not (so far) required it. But perhaps we should consider a “surcharge” for non-members, especially since with our increasing membership, demand for trips might exceed capacity.
- Fundraising travel. Sometimes travel companies provide some type of “rebate” when a group travels together. Recently, a group of Global Travelers sailed on the Danube and raised $5,000 for our club. We have several similar trips scheduled.
- Recommended Contribution. We don’t mandate any kind of contribution from our members, but we certainly encourage it. Perhaps we need to more strongly suggest an annual contribution with some kind of guideline. Or perhaps we have a specific activity, similar to our virtual service projects, where we solicit contributions.
- Virtual fundraiser like beer, wine or cheese tasting. We could partner with several organizations that run this type of fundraiser.
- Virtual fundraiser like biking or walking. This type of virtual activity became popular during the pandemic. Now many companies run events where employees track their activity and collect pledges (or pledge for themselves).
- Donate to a service project. With some of our “serve together, separately” projects, like the literacy project last year, we encouraged people to either donate books or make a donation to our Foundation earmarked for literacy.
