The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Rotary Foundation to accept contribution from non-members

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Rotary Foundation to accept contribution from non-members

By Ramya Kannan

The Director of International Fund Development of The Rotary International, Lawrence E. Shawver . Photo S. Thanthoni

CHENNAI, APRIL 11. Rotary Foundation, the humanitarian assistance wing of Rotary International, has now decided to welcome contributions from corporates and non-members as well, Lawrence E.Shawyer, director of the International Fund Development, Rotary Foundation, said here on Monday.

In the last few years the activity of the Rotary Foundation has expanded vastly and though the contributions had increased substantially, the demands on the Foundation were much higher. It was to meet these demands for development projects from all over the world that the decision to welcome monetary contributions from non-members had been taken, Mr.Shawyer said.

Burgeoning growth

He attributes the burgeoning growth of the Rotary Foundation programmes to the energy generated by the organisation's worldwide Pulse Polio campaign, that began in 1985. "Pulse Polio was the first significant humanitarian campaign for an organisation that had, until then, focused on educational scholarships and exchange programmes," he added.

As part of the corporate and individual sponsorship programme, any company, family or individual can invest a substantial sum in endowments, in conjunction with a local Rotary club.

The annual earnings from this account can be diverted for specified projects identified by the sponsor, while the actual supervision and monitioring will be undertaken by Rotary volunteers.

"As the project will be named after the sponsor or corporate, it will bring enormous goodwill to them and also aid in executing that company's corporate social responsibility. The project will be implemented in the sector and the geographical area specified by the sponsor," Mr.Shawyer said. "As people begin to understand the programme and how it works, they will want to contribute."

The recent tsunami rehabilitation activities that were undertaken by local Rotary Clubs had brought in a lot of contributions from the world over and this was an indication that opening up the doors to outside contributors would be a success, the Rotary International district Governor, Benjamin Cherian, said.

Krishnan V.Chari, Regional Rotary Foundation Co-ordinator, said all contributions to this corpus would enjoy 80 G exemption and also FCRA clearance.

Mr.Shawyer has great faith in the success of the project in India, whose fast-growing middle class was projected to become the largest single future membership group in the Rotary.

Over 30 per cent of the total funding from Rotary Foundation reached projects in India, past District Governor, M.Balaji said. Public contributions would enable it to meet the funding goals and objectives of the 28 Rotary districts in India.

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