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The Rotary Foundation Seminar TRF Trustee Michael Abdalla spoke to district leaders from Zone 24 at a combined membership and foundation seminar in Los Banos on August 5.
In the major donor session this morning, RRFC Joe LaGuess presented an outstanding program on the importance of Major Gift to foundation fundraising and how to identify and cultivate Rotarians and others to make these major gifts of cash, stock or property. In the brief time allotted to me I would like to talk to you about the importance of major gifts in enabling Our Rotary Foundation achieve it’s goal of a billion dollar Permanent Fund. It is the Permanent Fund of The Foundation that will ensure our foundations future. I was fortunate to have attended, as a delegate from my district, the Permanent Fund academy in 1996 in Chicago, where the initiative started to build Rotary’s endowment. Prior to that time the endowment or Permanent Fund of TRF was a modest $40 million, accumulated over the previous 50 years. Many major universities and hospitals have endowments of several billion dollars, the interest from which supports their programs, growth and expansion. Since 1996 the Permanent Fund has more than quadrupled in size as a direct result of the Permanent Fund Initiative, which sought major gifts from Rotarians and others. At that same time the benefactor program of The Rotary Foundation was started and it has evolved into the Bequest Society, such that the Permanent Fund now has over $300 million in expectancies. Joe has outlined beautifully the gift vehicles that can be used to help us reach our immediate goal, of having a Billion dollar foundation by the year 2015. The interest alone from that achievement will generate over $50 million dollars annually that will be spent on the humanitarian and education programs of Our Foundation. That will increase by over 50% the record setting contributions to The Annual Programs Fund we received last year. The success of achieving this goal falls squarely on the Rotary leadership in each district. You are the ones, working with your clubs, who are able to identify the Rotarians and others in your districts that have the capacity to make the major gifts that are so critical to building a significant endowment like the institutions that I previous identified. As you have been told, these gifts can and should also be part of every Rotarians estate plans. You have all probably heard the statistics but they are worth repeating. It is estimated that in the next two decades $30 trillion will pass from one generation to the next. Our hope is that a significant amount of that sum will be gifted to the Permanent Fund of Our Rotary Foundation. Lord knows that Rotary Clubs and the Trustees of The Foundation will use it more wisely than the U.S. Government. The Rotary Centers for International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution is now the major educational priority of Rotary International in achieving the Rotary Foundation’s mission for world understanding and peace in the new millennium. This program provides Rotary with the opportunity to make a significant impact on the world through creating 60 to 70 international leaders, every year, dedicated to world peace and infusing Rotary’s philosophy into their policies and decisions. The trustees are committed to the continuation of the Rotary Peace Fellowship Program. Working with the Rotary Foundation staff we have developed a fund development plan to raise $95 Million in endowed support for the Rotary World Peace Fellowship program by 30 June 2015. We are deeply appreciative of the generosity of donors who have already provided approximately $11.8 Million of that sum, thus far, to support Rotary World Peace Fellowships. We will continue to need DDF support from districts around the world to support this program until our $95 million goal has been achieved. We will be working with the RI board and other Rotarians, especially senior Rotary leaders at the zone level or above, to identify, cultivate and solicit major gifts of $500,000 or more to the Permanent Fund of TRF. The interest generated from these funds will support the Rotary World Peace Fellows in perpetuity. We hope that as you approach potential major donors in your districts that you will keep the peace fellowship program in mind. If I can be of any assistance to your clubs and your districts in the cultivation of potential major donors in your area, please feel free to call on me. And remember; set your district goals high. Rotary has always achieved great things when we set high goals. In 1985 when we set out to eradicate poliomyelitis, we set a goal of $120 million and raised over $240 million. In 2003 we set a goal of $80 million for the Polio Eradication Fund Raising Campaign needed to finish the job, and we raised over $130 million I would like to close my remarks today by telling you a story that I heard from a preacher at a district conference in Alabama that I attended several years ago. This story can serve as a guideline for Rotary leaders such as yourselves as you carry out the work of Rotary. He said that EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED FROM NOAH’S ARK
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I
am delighted to have been asked to participate in this major gift
seminar in Zone 24. On behalf of the trustees of The Rotary
Foundation I would like to acknowledge the tremendous support the
Our Foundation receives every year from the districts in Zone 24
and as you have been told, this year our Zone has led the Rotary
World in total giving to The Rotary Foundation. I would also like
to thank Brenda Cressey for her remarks about the Every Rotary
Every Year effort which has been instrumental this past year in
helping TRF set a new record with regard to contributions to the
Annual Programs Fund.