Giving & Grants

The Rotary Foundation supports a wide range of humanitarian initiatives and other sustainable member-led projects to keep communities healthy and strong. To finance these life-changing projects, our Foundation and leaders like you continue to find ways to secure donations from our members, participants, and supporters.
Trustee Chair Barry Rassin and RI President R. Gordon R. McInally asked leaders around the globe to encourage giving to our Foundation. Watch Trustee Chair Barry discuss the importance of giving.

International Literacy Day is 8 September. We encourage members to give in support of basic education and literacy year-round, and especially on and around this day. Through your donation, or by encouraging others to donate, you can empower educators to inspire learning at all ages, increase adult literacy, and reduce gender disparity in education.

We’re proud to announce the 2023 Programs of Scale grant recipient, United to End Cervical Cancer in Egypt. The Rotary-led initiative aims to vaccinate 32,000 girls against HPV and screen 10,000 women for cervical cancer in greater Cairo. What is learned from the program and the data it collects will shape the Egyptian government’s national strategy for eliminating cervical cancer.
The 2022 Programs of Scale award recipient, Together for Healthy Families in Nigeria, is a member-led, evidence-based program that is training health care workers, equipping health facilities, and creating new feedback and referral systems that will increase Nigerians’ access to high-quality health care and lead to more births taking place in health facilities. The program aims to reduce maternal and infant mortality by 25% in seven local government areas of Nigeria.

Are you seeking global grant funding for a project that will involve distributing water filters? In your community assessment, you should ask whether water filters are the best way to resolve the difficulties in getting clean water in that area. Grant applicants will need to explain why they aren’t pursuing longer-term strategies, given the local context. 
Projects that use household water filtration need to be planned carefully to make sure that the filters will be effective in addressing any water contamination, and the users need to be involved in choosing the filtration system. These projects should also include a financial sustainability plan and a hygiene education component. At a minimum, basic water service should be the goal. Projects that only distribute water filters are not usually eligible for global grants, particularly if they may not ultimately improve people’s access to clean, drinkable water.
For more details on planning transformative water projects, review the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Guidelines for Global Grant Funding.

You can now apply for disaster response grants online! District leaders can find the link on their Grant Center landing page. Applications are managed through a platform called Submittable. The first time you visit, you’ll be asked to create a Submittable account.
This change will make applying for disaster response grants more efficient and more transparent. Please note that if you send an application by email, you’ll be asked to apply through the Grant Center. We’ll also start asking for bank account information in the application, which will speed the payment process if your grant is approved.
The reporting timeline for disaster response grants is changing, too. Reports are now due within six months of the grant payment.

Are you serving in a club or district leadership role related to Rotary grants? If so, we have a newly updated resource for you. Grant Responsibilities by Leader helps club and district leaders understand their roles in qualifying for grants and using district, global, and disaster response grants. We encourage you to review it at the start of your term to make sure that you understand what’s expected of you and to become familiar with the resources that are available to you.

Many Rotary members attended the exciting five-part webinar series about planning projects that make an impact. These webinars offered tools and strategies to help members plan, find resources for, implement, and evaluate projects.
If you missed any of the webinars, you can view the recordings: 

• Promoting Projects: Tell Your Story
• Planning a Project: Design for Results
• Finding Project Partners and Resources: Build an Effective Team
• Measuring Results: Demonstrate Your Impact
• Expanding Reach: Partner With Youth in Service

The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers is a network of Rotary members who work to increase the impact of Rotary Foundation global grants. Cadre members use their professional expertise and technical skills in Rotary’s areas of focus and in financial auditing to assist members who are planning projects. They advise members at the club, district, and regional levels about the technical feasibility of projects, project finances, and grant applications. To connect with a Cadre adviser, contact one of the 2023-24 leaders of the Cadre of Technical Advisers.

The Grant Management Seminar learning plan and Grant Management Recertification course have been updated and are available in Rotary’s Learning Center. You can use these online courses as part of the club qualification process. Your club must qualify each year if it plans to apply for global grants. Districts that choose to hold their own grant management seminars can use the Grant Management Seminar Leader’s Guide to plan and conduct them.
Remember that Rotaract clubs can apply for global grants, too. District leaders, invite Rotaractors to participate in grant management seminars so their clubs can be qualified.

You can watch the recording of the Rotary’s People of Action: Champions of Inclusion event on demand until 30 September. This celebration of diversity, equity, and inclusion helps us imagine what’s possible when people of action come together to amplify the power of marginalized people locally and globally.