District Grants 2019-20 & 2020-21:

COVID 19 Grant applications

D7070 received 42 applications for COVID 19 projects.  In one project, two Clubs – Quinte Sunrise and Wellington – joined forces.  This means that three of four Clubs in D7070 participated.  This is a new record for Club participation in the District Grant process.

Ten of the 42 projects have already received their grant cheques for a total of $12,000.  These grants were taken from funds D7070 had left in the 2019-20 District Grant budget.  Instead of returning the surplus back to our DDF account at the Rotary Foundation, we requested to use them for these ten projects.......

The remaining 32 applications for COVID 19 projects will be included in the D7070 Spending Plan, which is the District’s application for funds based on District Grant project applications.  The total grant amount requested for the 32 projects is close to $35,000.  Ultimately, it will be the Rotary Foundation that approve the projects in our Spending Plan, but we are fairly comfortable with that they will be accepted.  The Spending Plan will be submitted to TRF within the first week of July.  We expect TRF to provide their decision late July or early August.  Once they have approved our Spending Plan, they transfer funds to our District Foundation account.  If everything works, Clubs can expect their District Grant cheques mid-August.

 

Non-COVID 19 Grant applications

We have also received some ‘traditional’ District Grant applications from Clubs.  Exactly, how they will be included in the Spending Plan is currently being discussed.  To some extent, it depends on how big a portion of the new DDF (District Designated Funds), the District wants to spend on District Grants.  While TRF allows us to use up to USD 63,500 (circa $85,000) for such grants, some recent changes to the overall grants process (mentioned below) may play a role in whether or not we want to use all USD63,500 for District Grants.  The decision about the non-COVID 19 applications must be taken shortly, as the Spending Plan must include all grant applications the District is supporting.

 

Changes to Global Grant Funding

The Trustees of the Rotary Foundation has recently made some decisions that will have a significant impact on the Grants program

  • Effective July 1, 2020, the Rotary Foundation will not match Club cash contributions to a Global Grant.  They will still match DDF dollar for dollar.  As the requirements for Global Grants must still have a budget of USD30,000 and a request from the World Fund of USD15,000, this means that every Global Grant project must have at least USD15,000 in its financing.  It may be an exaggeration to say that Club cash becomes irrelevant in a Global Grant project, but reality is that projects that don’t receive at least USD15,000 of DDF won’t qualify for Global Grants.  Previously, a project that received USD10,000 of DDF could meet the USD 15,000 hurdle by adding at least USD10,000 of Club cash to the project.  It is probably too early to say how this will affect the allocation of available DDF among Districts.

  • For the last ten years, there has been a requirement that at least 30% of the financing of a Global Grant project must come from outside the Home District.  The reason for this rule has been to encourage cooperation between Club and Districts in different parts of the world.  As of July 1, 2020, the minimum percentage of funding from outside the Host District will be lowered to 15%.  Time will tell if this will change how Districts use their DDF, e.g. if more Districts will look at doing Global Grants in their own District.

  • In the June 2020 meeting, the Trustees of the Rotary Foundation decided that Rotaract Clubs will be eligible to apply for grants from July 1, 2022. 

 

Club Qualification

As hopefully every Rotarian in the District knows, Clubs that want to apply for District or Global Grants must be qualified.  Two members of the Club must take the on-line training provided by the District.  In addition, the Club must sign an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the District.  The MOU specifies how Clubs should handle grant funds, responsibilities and how Clubs must store documents related to grant projects. 

At the end of June, the following Clubs are qualified for the 2020-21 Rotary year

Ajax                                                        Alliston                                                   Belleville

Bowmanville                                         Campbellford                                       Cpbpurg

Colborne                                               Etobicoke                                              Markham Sunrise               

Newmarket                                           North York                                             Oshawa                                

Oshawa Parkwood                              Pickering                                               Picton                                    

Port Hope                                              Port Perry                                              Quinte Sunrise                    

Richmond Hill                                       Scarborough                                        Scarborough Bluffs             

Stirling                                                   Toronto Danforth                                 Toronto East                        

Toronto Eglinton                                  Toronto Forest Hill                               Toronto Leaside                 

Toronto Skyline                                    Toronto West                                        Uxbridge                              

Wellington                                            Whitby                                                   Whitby Sunrise                    

Willowdale.

 

In addition, there are a handful Clubs that have either not submitted their Memorandum of Understanding ( MOU ) or only have one trained member.  The modules are still available on the District’s website, so Clubs are still able to become qualified.  Clubs must be qualified when the District Grant cheques are issued.  Here is the link to the qualification material on the District website   https://www.rotary7070.org/sitepage/rotary-foundation-grants-information

 

Further information

Rotarians and Rotary Clubs are welcome to contact PDG Lars Henriksson with questions and comments related to issues covered in this notice as well as any other matters related to the Rotary Foundation’s Grants program.  Lars can be reached at pdglars.henriksson@swedishconsulates.ca or cell 416 402 6093.