1. Some of the Recent Changes

2.  A $9.5 million Matching Grant budget for 2009-10  Represents a 70% reduction from 2008-09 Rotary year  Applications are approved in date order, based on the earliest date the application is complete and meets all requirements.  Therefore, the available Matching Grant budget will be committed very early this year, and may already be exhausted.

3.  During this year, there will be only one round of Competitive Matching Grants ($25,000 +).  Ten percent of the budget was set aside for these.  Applications must be received by August 1.  Trustees will process these at their October meeting.

4.  With no World Fund matching, what are our options this year?  You can substitute the amount requested from the World Fund with DDF (minimum project: $10,000).  You can seek other funding sources & partnerships.  You can delay your project and resubmit your grant application for the 2010-11 Rotary year.

5.  Will Future Vision Pilot Districts be able to continue to do Matching Grants with non-pilot districts?  YES — for the 2009-10 Rotary Year  NO — for future years

6.  During 2009-10, TRF will only approve 3-H grant applications that support water & sanitation projects in Ghana, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic as part of the RI/USAID International H 2 O Alliance.

7.  These are being phased out, beginning 1 July 2009.  No new applications for travel to plan a future project will be accepted this year.  Rotarians are encouraged to seek funding from outside sources for their international travel.

8.  There is no change to District Simplified Grants.  Districts will still be able to request up to 20% of their DDF to support local and international projects according to the current program requirements.

9.  All TRF funding for previously funded Disaster Recovery activities has been fully committed.  Clubs & districts that wish to respond to a disaster are encouraged to utilize the Disaster Recovery options provided by RI Programs.  For more information visit: www.rotary.org/en/serviceandfellowship/ DisasterRelief/howtohelp/Pages/ridefault.aspx

10.  Back to the exchanging GSE teams over 2 years, beginning with the 2010-11 Rotary year.  Awarding of the 2010 World Fund GSE teams will be conditional until the Trustees approve the 2010-11 budget at their April 2010 meeting.  Districts wanting to participate in GSE partnering for 2010-11 must decide whether they want to partner with other World Funded districts on the 2-year cycle or allocate DDF funds for a 1-year GSE cycle.

11.  These programs will be funded for the last time with the 2010-11 program year awards.  Consequently those grants already awarded for the 2009-10 year will continue to be funded, but no new recipients will be added to these programs this year.  Applications submitted will be returned to the applicants with an explanation that these grants are no longer being funded by the Foundation.

12.  The traditional 1-year Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarships can continue to be funded from DDF by any district choosing to offer these.  However, the Trustees will not continue to offer the annual stipend through the World Fund to provide Regional Orientation Grants.  The required outbound orientation for Ambassadorial Scholars may be held at the club, multi-district or regional level.

13.  Funding for this program is being suspended for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 years.  Trustees have agreed to reassess this suspension for the 2012-13 year at their April 2010 meeting.  Trustees are encouraging districts to continue and increase donations from their DDF directly to low-income countries so that scholars from those countries will have the opportunity to receive Ambassadorial Scholarships.

14.  Conducted semi-annually, a World Reporting analysis will track each district’s reporting compliance percentage for Humanitarian Grant projects.  Districts with an overall reporting compliance below 70% for two consecutive grant reporting analyses may be suspended from participating in TRF’s Humanitarian Grants Programs.

15.  The rules for transfers of points changed 1 July.  No transfers of FRPs are now allowed of less than 100 points.  Club Presidents can no longer sign off on transfers of points from previous club members or deceased members.  Signed personal permission is now required for transfer of previous club members’ points.  FRPs of deceased Rotarians expire and can no longer be retrieved.  If the deceased is a Major Donor, however, the spouse maintains control of the FRPs.