District Foundation Chair Mike Ericson talked about how our contributions to the Foundation come back to benefit our community 3 fold and helps other clubs world wide as well.  
 
Also check out our cool new club banner!  
 
Today we welcomed District Fundraising Chairman Mike Ericson.  Mike's home club is Schaumburg/Hoffman Estates.  
 
We also unveiled our new club banner listing Rodney Adams as District Governor.  Hmm, if that's all it takes to get a new banner, we should have a DG every couple of years and save on the dry cleaning costs!
 
Another reminder to submit a list of guests for our holiday concert meeting to Brian by December 3rd.  
 
Mike started his talk telling us that there are 51 cases of polio in the world today, down from 365,000 in the 1980's when Rotary International began its eradication campaign.  Our District 6440 has contributed over $500,000 to that campaign.  
 
Mike then turned towards explaining how the District raises funds for the foundation.  Every club is expected to raise $168 per member.  Our goal is $2,400, which is well within reach - we've raised $2,000 so far for the FY.   
 
For the first time in recent memory, the district had more grant requests than available funds.  These are local grants (like our Operation Warm) as well as global grants.  Global grants give a minimum of $35,000 due to the matching mechanism in place.  The local clubs need to raise $10,000 (total, not per club) which is then matched dollar for dollar by the district and $1.50 for each dollar by Rotary International.  So every dollar raised by the club turns into $3.50 by the time all's said and done.  Global grants must be sustainable and must be multinational.  Rotary International does not wan the work it does setting up projects to deteriorate after the Rotarians go home!  
 
A key fundraising initiative Mike is coordinating is the Paul Harris Society - a group of Rotarians who make $1,000 annual donations to Rotary.  Mike's goal is to have 100 PHS members in the District and has 52 already.  I'll be sending him John and Conrad's mailing addresses to help bolster those numbers!