Speaker November 24th - Haresh Ramchandani. , The Rotary Foundation

 
Sean Goodall introduced Haresh. November is Rotary Foundation month. Sean reached out to a former director of Rotary Foundation who recommended Haresh Ramchandani.
“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we live.”
Haresh was born in India and moved to Kingston, Jamaica. HE has two children and is a real estate developer by profession. Life member of Rotary and PDG of 7020 Caribbean Islands. He currently chairs Rotary International Past District Governors committee. He has many hobbies and loves sports.
 
Talk Summary (see video for full details)
 
Marvel has recently introduced a female lead and embraced diversity in its Higher, Further, Faster theme. Rotary has been focusing on that in recent times. What was causing this massive excitement in the Marvel superhero world? An ideal of self-empowerment. We don’t need to wait on anyone. Higher, Further, Faster, More, a message to girls and to the whole world. We are the ones we have been waiting for.
 
Ramesh walked us through what our Rotary Foundation does, drawing on his love of comic superheroes.
 
Higher. Raising giving to the Foundation. A lot of pressure is on our Global Grants today. Some ideas:
  1. start telling everybody about how great our foundation is. For 12 consecutive years it has been on Charity Navigator 4-star rating. Challenge people to find other organizations that have this rating.
  2. Three options: 
    1. Annual Fund (most popular). Great options: Paul Harris Fellow ($1000 1 water well 2 artificial limbs 3 water wells 4000 polio vaccinations). Paul Harris Society ($1000 per year.) Major Donor ($10K+), requires cultivation average 13 months. Arch Klumph Society ($250K+). Have conversations; plant seeds. District and RI can support the seeding. 
    2. Endowment Fund. professionally invested funds
    3. Polio Plus Fund. (Donations are matched 6:1 with District, Foundation, Bill & Linda Gates Foundation)
Further. Increasing impact in our communities
  1. Scaling up. With a great idea, take it to the next level. 
  2. Revisit successful projects. Replicate successful project in another area.
  3. Next Phases
To help go further, consider Global Grants and the seventh area of focus, Supporting the Environment, starting July 2021
 
Global Grant: Vocational Training Team (take to another country). Hard to estimate economic benefit, even if very substantial.
 
Global Grant Scholarships. Impact will be huge.
 
Rotary Peace Fellowships. Example of stopping riots in South Sudan, a former Rotary Peace Fellow.
 
Faster. Partner with other organizations. Partnership is the key. Greatest example: Global Polio Eradication. Recent new partner.
example of Cath. Lab in Jamaica. $100K from Foundation, impact $1.2M
Other partnership examples.
 
More. people, voices, ideas; Rotary “Alumni” who have experienced a Rotary program. Reach out to them. Invite to come on board for a project. Form Polio to COVID-19—benefit of infrastructure.
 
Rotary Action Groups are great for focusing on a particular area of service.
 
Discussion
Joyce, as non-Rotarian. Huge question. From top down in each club, when money is a problem. How is the financial system built in Rotary? Who oversees whoever is in charge of the money? We’ve heard of organizations where people have absconded with funds. How does an individual know about the security?
 
John Farrow responded as Foundation Committee Chair. In Canada, the control is through Foundation Canada. It is governed by a Board of Trustees to oversee investment. Annual Reports are available to anyone. Very well governed. Back end: in Districts, people who look after Global Grants, oversee rigorous conditions to get a grant.
 
Haresh mentioned that in Haiti there were 4000 NGOs. After earthquake, 22,000 NGOs registered.
 
Greg emphasized that Charity Navigator was a report card for the Foundation.
 
Greta du Bois thanked Haresh for giving us a new take on the Rotary Foundation. Grateful that we have Zoom enabling such meetings. She reminded us of two key words: shift and empowerment. Without a shift, we become stagnant. Empowerment is what we all look for in Rotary. She then shared our tradition of giving guest speakers a loaf of bread, this time a virtual one.