Community Needs Grants Program Information

1. Background:

One of the four Avenues for Rotary is "Community Service". A significant endeavor for Community Service is raising funds through assessments, voluntary contributions and Club projects; and the annual distribution of these funds to local community services organizations and programs.

2. General Procedures:

The annual club budget approved by the Officers and Board will allocate a certain amount to "general community needs projects". We will also hold fund-raising activities to generate community needs monies. It is Club policy that 100 percent of all funds generated through assessments, donations and club projects will be allocated to charity purposes.

The Club Community Needs Committee will take action to solicit requests from organizations and individuals for distribution of those funds budgeted for "general needs"; review all requests; and recommend specific grants to the Board for final approval. Club members are invited to submit nominations for committee action.

Generally, grants will be directed to support programs and projects that provide direct support to the welfare, education, and security for the needy in the greater Auburn and Lee County area.

The Community Needs Committee will use its own discretion for Committee review and analyses and decide a consensus order of priority for recommending grants. Generally, all requests for an amount of $500 or more will be made in writing using an approved format.

For requests for an amount less than $500, the committee will consider letter or memorandum requests with general information to support the request.

The Committee may schedule face-to-face discussions with concerned parties as needed for review and evaluation.

The Committee will make the annual call for requests for grants in February. The committe will review grants and make decisions after the close of the acceptance process.

Recipients of approved awards will notified by the Committee. Presentations will be arranged and scheduled by the Committee, and will be made at a regularly scheduled club meeting whenever possible.

3. Guidelines for Evaluating Requests

To evaluate requests and recommend specific allocations of available funds the Committee will give highest priority to those programs and projects which:

Directly support the education, security, and welfare of needy children, families and the elderly or the current mission or activities of Auburn Rotary and Rotary International,

Have a major impact on the local community at large,

Have a clear budget and plan for applying awarded grant money and maximing its use,

Have comparatively low overhead/indirect cost, to direct client benefit ratio,

and are dependent on external sources of funding such as donations or those provided by organizations like Rotary.

Please see the right column for submittal instructions.