World Community Service Committee

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How the Committee Functions and Distributes Grants

Click Here to download a .pdf copy of District 5450 2010 Grants Handbook

Click Here to dowloand a .pdf copy of District 5450's Best Practices and Project Sustainability

Each year, the Denver Rotary Club Foundation awards the WCS committee a budget to use for new projects. The amount awarded for 2010-11 was $40,000 and $34,000 was awarded in 2011-12.  Any member wishing to attend our meetings is welcome to do so.  We meet once a month, on the second Tuesday of the month, 7:30 am to approximately 8:45 am in the conference room at the Colorado Bar Association (Chuck Turner's office), 1900 Grant Street, Suite 850, Denver.  At each meeting we listen to and vote upon proposals for new projects and hear brief reports from members concerning the status of ongoing projects.

Attending meetings and voting on new projects is just the start! Each project must have a "champion" within our committee.  In the case of initiating a project, this is the person (or group of persons) who comes up with the project, perhaps tries to get other clubs to contribute to it, presents it to the committee for approval and processes the paperwork through the Denver Club, District and The Rotary Foundation bureaucracies.

There are basically four ways that the WCS committee spends the money allocated to it:

1. Matching Grants (Minor / Major)

This is the most commonly used way that our committee money is spent.  Members of the committee identify various projects and present proposals to the committee to use a portion of the budget as “seed money” to fund a specific project. The member must identify and establish contact with a Rotary club in the project host country to oversee the project, and may also seek to get other Rotary clubs in Colorado or the U.S. involved in contributing funds to the project. If our committee approves a project, then the member who presented it submits it for matching funds from both (a) a fund set aside by the District (“District Designated Funds” or "DDF") and (b) The Rotary Foundation (its official name) or “TRF”, which is often referred to as the Rotary International Foundation ("RI"), to avoid confusion with our club's separate foundation, Denver Rotary Club Foundation ("DRCF").  The formula for Matching Grants changes from year to year.
           
This fiscal year the District has $120,400 available for matching grants.  The rules for disbursement are as follows;

1. Club funds will be matched $1 to $1 with District Funds.
2. District Designated Funds will be issued on a first / come first served basis until total funds are exhausted.
3. The maximum amount of District Designated Funds each Club will  be allowed is $10,000 for the Year.  (This $10,000 applies whether the Club is the lead Club or a contributing Club.)
4. The maximum District Designated Funds match for a project will be:
    a. $4,000 for one Club
    b. $6,000 for two Clubs
    c. $8,000 for three Clubs
    d. $10,000 for four Clubs

The Rotary Foundation (TRF) matches

o 100% of the DDF contribution, plus
o 50% of the clubs' contributions (The total requested of TRF must be at least $5,000; requests of TRF funds for more than $25,000 make the grant a "Major Matching Grant", and are extraordinary.) 

Often we get involved in projects which are led by or which involve other charitable organizations.  Examples of organizations with whom we have cooperated are Project Cure and Water for People.  And, of course, a member might also present a proposal to use a part of our budget to contribute to a matching grant project initiated by another local club.

2. District Simplified Grants (DSG)

Members of the committee identify projects and present proposals. If our committee approves a project, then the member who presented it submits it for matching funds from a separate fund set aside by the District (within the “District Designated Funds” or "DDF").   Each year guidelines are established by the District regarding the disbursement of these funds. 

This fiscal year $42,843 is available for District Simplified Grants  and the guidelines are as follows:

1. District Simplified Grant Projects are short term in nature, and can be local projects or  international projects that meet the TRF guidelines, but do not qualify for a matching grant.  A DSG will be approved for an international project only if there is no Rotary Club in the country in which the project will be implemented.
2. Club funds will be matched $1 for $1 with District Designated Funds.  District Simplified Grants do not receive an additional match from The Rotary Foundation.
3. Projects that meet TRF criteria will be issued District Designated Funds on a first come / first served basis until total District Simplified Grant Funds are exhausted.
4. The maximum District Designated Funds each Club will be allowed is a total of $4,000 for the    year. (Lead Club and/or contributing Club.)
5. The maximum District Designated Funds for a project will be:
    a. $4,000 for one Club
    b. $5,000 for two Clubs
    c. $6,000 for three Clubs

The projects must be new projects (i.e., not repeats of prior year projects, even if they involve new people), and must have significant Rotarian involvement. 

3. Health Hunger and Humanity (commonly called “3-H” Grants)

These grants involve long-term projects too large for one club or district to implement, and they are not frequently done.  Our club has initiated one 3-H Grant in its history, and has contributed to others initiated elsewhere, including the recently approved Russian Health Fair Project initiated by a club in Alaska.

4. Committee "Straight" Grants

Occasionally the committee decides to award a grant for a worthy international-focus cause without seeking matching from either  the District or The Rotary Foundation.  An example would be the Juarez housing project.  Club contributions only are required  because TRF guidelines do not permit the use of TRF grant funds on housing related projects.