GRANTS DEADLINES & NOTICES
SUBMIT
19 September
For proposals for breakout
sessions at the 2017 Rotary
Convention in Atlanta, 10-14 June
1 October
For nominations for the Rotary
Service Above Self Award
1 November
For nominations for the Service
Award for a Polio-Free World
For nominations for the Vocational
Service Leadership Award
ATTEND
30 September
To apply for a booth in the
House of Friendship at the
Atlanta convention
15 December
To register for the Atlanta
convention at the lowest rate
NOTICES
Rotary has changed its official
travel management company to
Raptim Humanitarian Travel.
Learn how this will enhance
your Rotary travel.
A full-length PDF version
of the Official Directory is available
with a My Rotary account. Only
an abbreviated print version of
the directory is now available and
can be purchased by contacting
rotarysupportcenter@rotary.org.
Plan to celebrate World Interact
Week with the Interact Club you
sponsor, 31 October- 6 November.
Mark your calendar for Rotary’s
World Polio Day live-streamed
event on 24 October.
Suzette Ramdanie-Linton was almost ready to
give up on a clean water project that her Rotary
club had initiated in St. James, Jamaica, last
year, because the funding simply wasn’t there.
She and fellow members of the Rotary Club
of Montego Bay Sunrise in Jamaica did a
community assessment in 2015 and found that
11 schools and one children’s home in rural
St. James were in desperate need of new
bathroom facilities. The club contributed nearly
$4,000 to get a project off the ground.
But that sum was far from enough to address
the need, says Ramdanie-Linton, who served as
club president in 2014-15. “We needed to find
partners to complete the project. Unfortunately,
we weren’t finding the funding fast enough.
I was a little frustrated at the lack of progress
we were making,” she says.
The district governor at the time, Paul Brown,
encouraged her to promote the project on
Rotary Ideas. Two weeks after she put a
project outline and photos on the Rotary
crowdsourcing platform, she received an email
from Naude Dreyer, a member of the Rotary
Club of Central Cayman Islands.
Dreyer was looking specifically for water
projects in Jamaica. “It was a perfect find for us,”
he says. “Rotary Ideas is a really cool site and a
great way to fundraise.”
The Central Cayman Islands club ended up
being the biggest donor, contributing $8,000
toward the $40,000 global grant from The
Rotary Foundation, Ramdanie-Linton says.
“Their generosity and partnership pushed the
project forward.” The project was expected to
have been completed in July.
Rotary Ideas helps clubs seeking volunteers,
partnerships, and in-kind donations, as well as
funding, connect with one another. More than
1,220 projects have been posted on the platform
since it was launched in August 2013. And
unlike other crowdfunding sites, Rotary Ideas
emphasizes partnerships over dollars. The
two clubs already are collaborating on another
project, to provide dictionaries to third graders
in St. James.
“A lot has come out of a simple post, and the
platform was really easy to use,” Ramdanie-Linton says. “I think any club faced with
insufficient funding should give Rotary Ideas
a chance.”
HERE ARE A FEW TIPS TO GET
THE MOST OUT OF YOUR
ROTARY IDEAS POST:
Share your project page with as many people
as possible through Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram.
Include as many details about the project as
you can. Use photos to illustrate needs.
Once donations are committed and project
creators have to contact contributors
directly, use the Contributors tab to see who
has pledged funds.
If you have questions, contact the Ideas
team at social@rotary.org.
View our tutorials to learn how to use
Rotary Ideas.
ROTARY IDEAS
FORGES GLOBAL GRANT
PARTNERSHIP