Foundation looks to the future with new goals

By Ryan Hyland
Rotary International News - 16 January 2008
Monika Lozinska-Lee/Rotary Images

Enhancing Rotary’s public image and asking clubs and districts to partner more with The Rotary Foundation are just two of the new 2008-09 Foundation goals.

Foundation Trustee Chair-elect Jonathan Majiyagbe asked the more than 530 district governors-elect attending the International Assembly in San Diego, California, USA, to accept the duty of achieving the goals and to Make Dreams Real .

The 2008-09 Foundation goals are:

1. Keep our promise to eradicate polio .

2. Embrace the two pillars of support for The Rotary Foundation: the Annual Programs Fund through Every Rotarian, Every Year and the Permanent Fund .

3. Participate in Your Foundation/Our Foundation, a "lend a hand" program for sharing funds from club and district foundations to permanently establish the Rotary World Peace Fellows program and support global polio eradication.

4. Enhance Rotary's public image .

5. Support the Future Vision Plan of The Rotary Foundation.

The first two items are similar to the 2007-08 goals of eradicating polio and ensuring contributions to the Foundation. The last three, however, are new.

If Rotarians work together toward the third goal of supporting Your Foundation/Our Foundation, Majiyagbe believes the Foundation can both permanently endow the Rotary World Peace Fellowships program and help eradicate polio.

"Many Rotary clubs and districts have their own endowment funds or foundations, some of which have greater funds than our Rotary Foundation," he said. "In the past, The Rotary Foundation has sometimes viewed these entities as competitors for Rotarian contributions, but I would like to change that perspective. I would like to see our relationship move from that of competitors to partners."

The Foundation can accomplish much more if club and district foundations contribute at least 10 percent of their funds to the polio eradication effort and the peace fellowships program, said Majiyagbe. He also urged Rotarians to use their affinity credit cards , which have raised US$5.5 million for the Foundation since the program’s inception in 2000.

With so much to accomplish, now is the ideal time to work on the fourth goal of enhancing Rotary's public image, a task that must be carried out at the grassroots level. "Better public acknowledgement will help us attract new members to our Rotary clubs, and it will help us attract new donors to our Foundation," he said.

The last goal of supporting the Future Vision Plan will help keep the Foundation viable, make it more efficient, and "meet the needs of the ages," said Majiyagbe.