Foundation Note - June 6, 2017

District 7910 Major Donors and Bequest Society Members

By Michelle Gasbarro and Sanjay Deshpande

District 7910 celebrated the Centennial of The Rotary Foundation at a Gala Event on May 25 at the Mechanics Hall in Worcester. We thank those of you who joined us for this celebration.

A “Foundation” operates on funds given for the permanent support of an organization. The Rotary Foundation, a public charitable entity that has garnered the highest rating among its peers, transforms the donations it receives into projects that change lives both close to home and around the world by tapping into a global network of Rotarians who invest their time, money, and expertise into priorities embodied in Rotary’s six areas of focus.

For 100 years, the Foundation has been "doing good in the world," spending $3.7 billion to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education and the alleviation of poverty. The support the Foundation has provided throughout the last century has made a significant and profound difference in the entire world, with the near-eradication of polio as the crowning achievement.

This was enabled by the contributions from Rotarians around the world as well as their skills, passion and compassionate active involvement. We take this opportunity to recognize District 7910's Major Donors and Bequest Society Members.

Major donors are Rotarians and other individuals or entities (institutions, corporations and trusts) that have contributed $10,000 or more in their lifetime to the Annual Fund of the Foundation. The Foundation utilizes these funds to support the District Grant and Global Grant projects carried out by Rotarians around the world to promote peace or prevent conflict, provide water and sanitation, fight disease, help mothers and children get healthy, increase basic education and literacy, and support economic development.

Over the years, 56 Rotarians in District 7910 have achieved the status of Major Donors. Table 1 provides a breakdown of the different Major Donor levels achieved by these generous people as of this May 14.

Table 1. D7910 Major Donors, and Levels Achieved

LEVEL	MINIMUM AMOUNT	MAXIMUM AMOUNT	TOTAL ACHIEVERS	2017 ACHIEVERS
1	$10,000	$24,999	44	5
2	$25,000	$49,999	7	2
3	$50,000	$99,999	3	1
4	$100,000	$249,999	2	0

A full list of the living Major Donors in District 7910 can be seen here.

Bequest Society Members are those who have pledged to contribute at least $10,000 in planned giving to the Endowment of the Foundation. The Endowment Fund contributions are invested and only the earnings (interest, dividends and some capital gains) are used to supplement the Annual Fund, which supports the humanitarian activities of the Foundation as discussed above. Planned giving can be accomplished in several different ways:

A provision in a will, including codicils
A provision in a trust
Insurance-beneficiary designations
Real estate and other asset transfers
Gifts of retirement-plan assets or other financial accounts

There are 74 Bequest Society Members in District 7910 at several different levels as shown in the Table 2.

Table 2. D7910 Bequest Society Members, and Levels Achieved

LEVEL	MINIMUM AMOUNT	MAXIMUM AMOUNT	TOTAL ACHIEVERS	2017 ACHIEVERS
1	$10,000	$24,999	54	31
2	$25,000	$49,999	7	5
3	$50,000	$99,999	7	4
4	$100,000	$249,999	6	4

It is not surprising to note that out of the 74 total members, 44 achieved that status during 2017, the year District 7910 launched the Million Dollar Journey to accumulate donations or pledges of at least $1 million to the Endowment Fund.

A full list of the living Bequest Society Member in District 7910 can be seen here.

You may contact Michelle Gasbarro, incoming chair of the District Foundation Committee, at tmgasbarro@verizon.net, and Sanjay Deshpande, the committee's present chair, at sanjdesh51@aol.com.