Your Voice, Your Solution Best Practices
E ach month on the RI Web site, Rotarians share their ideas and strategies for addressing challenges. To read best practices written by Rotarians, click on one of the topics below:
Service projects
Club administration
Service projects
No budget for service project
It’s January and you have just thought of a great community project, but you now find out there is no money in the club’s budget to fund it. How do you get the money the project needs?
- Two years ago, our club began Rent a Rotarian. The idea is for residents to pay for the services of Rotarians on a designated day. On a Saturday, we rake leaves, fix fences, clean yards, etc. It's a great way for Rotarians to interact, have fun, and raise money for the club. – Martha Bailey
- Partner with other Rotary clubs to finance your projects. We usually obtain financing during a Rotary project fair each year. Also, work with your local municipality, which can donate land or services to support the project. – Alciral LeSage Cuadra
- Organize a winter carnival/club fair for the families of members. Include games, food, and a raffle. We usually collect enough funds for our projects for the second half of the Rotary year. – Sharad Ranjan
- Reach out to the community to seek supporters for a specific project. Through newspaper publicity and members’ direct appeals to friends and acquaintances in the community, we are developing a list of friends of our club, complete with contact information. This friends list is our starting point for fundraising. The result will be community members participating in and sharing pride in the success of our service projects — as well as the financial responsibility. – Leah Reich
- First, find out what the community can do to help itself. Often, other nongovernmental organizations contribute to the project, as do governmental agencies, on all levels. In some countries, companies that make contributions to projects can receive tax exemptions. We must strive to obtain contributions from the private and public sectors by arousing their interest in our projects. – Juan Carlos Ordoñez
- A fundraiser where money comes from the general public is providing community toilets. Additional funding can be raised from sponsors who place advertisements on the toilet walls. The money collected can be used to fund more toilets or other community projects. – Sandeep Poddar
- Consider corporate sponsorships. A business or group of businesses can provide financial backing in exchange for advertising, promotion, and recognition in advance of and during the project. Businesses with a commitment to service in the community recognize this as a way to give back and provide community support. – Irene Kelly
- Create a club or district webpage that includes links with advertising. Google offers tools such as AdWords, which can be used to generate income by creating a link that is tied to a series of keywords to target segments of the market. These segments include companies that make donations and businesses that are willing to contribute a percentage of their sales from the ads on the Rotary club’s website or through a specific project. – Marco Antonio Jaramillo Pérez
- Our biggest fundraiser with little investment is an in-house auction, where members bring in items and we auction them off. The largest amount of money comes from Rotarians offering to cook dinners for two to six couples from the club. Our members pay US$50 to $100 per person. – David Bisbee
- Consider holding a chili supper. Our club has held a successful annual chili supper for many years as our signature fundraising event. Our other big fundraiser is a murder mystery dinner, which has raised money to benefit foster children, a city Main Street program, and more. – Mark Ogle
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Lack of participation in service projects
You are the service projects chair for your club. A third of your members never participate in club projects. How do you get them involved?
- Have longer-term members explain the project and its benefits to the newer members. Once we start a project, we try to make it as fun as possible. We take breaks, eat, and we have members who entertain us. Everyone has a good time, and before you know it, the project is over and everyone is in the mood to start another project. After the project is over, we have the newer members report about the project and how they felt about it: the good and the bad. This feedback helps us with setting up the next project. – Stephen O’Neill
- The best way to get club members involved is through creating a vision of the desired outcomes. Make sure members are aware of the benefit created when they participate and are involved. Also, recognizing those who have given their time often raises interest and participation from other club members. – Rick Tinucci
- Not all Rotarians sign up to serve on committees. You may want to create a new committee called the Rotary Service Volunteer Pool (RSVP) and assign all members to it who have not volunteered to serve on a committee. When volunteers are needed for a particular service project, this committee will be called upon first. You'd be surprised how eager and willing RSVP committee members are, because they have been personally asked to pitch in and help. – Linda Coble
- Lack of participation in service projects by members may be due to their lack of conviction when it comes to Rotary principles. Regular programs on Rotary Basics are one way to instill Rotary principles, is adopting and adhering to the Club Leadership Plan. – Syed Azmatullah
- Make it fun. We have had the problem of members not participating in service projects, but when we publicized that we would have a live band for a polio awareness walk, the turnout improved. – Emeka Onohwakpor
- The solution to the problem resides in having a strong project in which members are proud to participate. Mediocre projects are incapable of motivating a group. If your club isn’t able to do a large project, it is worth doing something small where each member is involved and is proud of his or her membership in the club. – Manzan Aloisio Manzan de Brito
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Increasing contributions to PolioPlus
Your club has set a fundraising goal for PolioPlus in support of Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge. You would like to involve the community in this fundraising effort. How will you raise awareness and money for PolioPlus in your community?
- The Rotary Club of Paonia, Colorado, USA, placed collection jars in 50 local businesses with these signs: "Please give 25 cents or more. Help Rotary wipe out polio. 60 cents vaccinates one child. Our goal: vaccinate 5,000 children." The signs also had color pictures of a child receiving an oral immunization and another who was suffering from polio. We collected over $2,000 in one year. – Sarah Bishop
- Our club, the Rotary Club of Malate, Manila, Philippines, is hosting a Rotarian international golf fellowship event in Manila for the benefit of the PolioPlus Fund. This will be a yearly event. – Mark Lisaca
- We should take the amount left to raise to meet Rotary's US$200 Million Challenge and divide that by the number of Rotarians in the world, and then by the number of months left in the challenge. The monthly contribution would be quite low. During my year as club president, I will create a coupon book for the monthly contribution and give it to every Rotarian. – Vinicius Ulhoa Goulart
- Our club is planning an exciting fundraiser called Cruising for a Cause for PolioPlus. The cruise will be open to everyone, and a percentage of the dollar amount raised will be matched by the cruise line. – Suzanne McLeod
- The 29 district governors in Great Britain and Ireland have all agreed to launch a high-profile public relations strategy to help the End Polio Now campaign. The objective is to celebrate "Rotary Day" on 23 February whilst providing all 1,850 clubs (56,000 Rotarians) with a coordinated project entitled Thanks for Life. The Thanks for Life project has three key components: (1) create a high-profile public relations campaign to raise awareness of the outstanding work of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland, (2) involve one million children in 3,000 schools to raise at least £1 million towards Rotary's US$200 Million Challenge, and (3) create opportunities to attract new quality members by working with over 3,000 teachers and 10,000 parents and grandparents in this exciting project. – David Hodge
- Our club president has been hand-carving walking sticks with symbols of children walking and asking for a donation of a minimum of $20 each. They are worth far more and are collecting far more. – Susy Sanders
- My daughter's Interact club had a unique way to earn funds through Pennies for Polio. The club brought in a polio survivor to speak to the high school, then set up containers for each class to fill with as many pennies as it could find. The reward for the most pennies was a day without having to wear uniforms. The Interact Club of Saint Edward's School, Vero Beach, Florida, USA, succeeded in earning over $300 in a week for PolioPlus. – Tracy Carroll
- I am a triathlete and a member of the Rotary Club of Marquette West, Michigan, USA. As the incoming club president, I decided to dedicate my entire 2009 racing season to raising money and awareness for PolioPlus. I'm competing in 21 different races. My club has supported me with donations and race clothes with the End Polio Now logo. My club's fundraising goal for this year is $5,800. My goal is to match that. The local media have picked up my story, and I am also working with other clubs in my district in the cities where I am racing to help promote my cause. – Marie Peasley
- Our club is running a program that involves selling End Polio Now car magnets to Rotarians. When displayed on Rotarians' vehicles, the magnets not only raise money for PolioPlus but also help raise awareness in the community. Our goal is to raise $10,000 for PolioPlus. – Dan Herbert
- One by one, every member of every club in the world donates the value of one vaccination to save someone. I believe this objective is possible and allows all members to collaborate, regardless of their socioeconomic status. – Natalia Villarroel
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Club administration
New treasurer is inexperienced
At the last minute, your club has had to select a treasurer who does not have a financial background. What do you do to help prepare the treasurer?
- Rotary favors leadership development and change. If, at the last minute, the club has to select a treasurer who does not have a financial background, the practical solution is that the incumbent should attend any training available, learn by turning the pages of previous records, and seek guidance from past treasurers. After all, he or she is not left alone solving problems but helped by the club as a team. – Syed Azmatullah
- The best thing that clubs can do is get an electronic accounting program and have it set up by a professional so it can be passed on to the next treasurer each year. All funds must be deposited in the bank account in full and checks written out for each expense so that there is a detailed record. Keep a file with all documents, and then the auditor should be able to do his or her job easily. The key is to be able to track all receipts and payments. A good system makes it much easier when an inexperienced person has to take over. We have to remember that we are accountable to the public for the management of all funds raised. – Jeanette Burgess
- Send your new treasurer-to-be to a district secretaries-elect training seminar, a two-day meeting that includes training on computer programs and makes your treasurer’s life much easier. See www.showmerotary.org . – Duane Sterling
- Appoint a mentor. Task-wise, it's pretty straightforward and just requires a small, regular amount of time to keep things sorted out. There's always help at the district level too (for example, the district treasurer or the district assembly), or from other surrounding clubs if you have a "cluster." In our club, this scenario actually occurred recently, and I got the gig at the last minute. I had plenty of experience outside of Rotary in this role, and with a little support from the club president, it all went well. – Dean Kennedy
- It is all in the mind. Handling the finances of a Rotary club primarily means operating a bank account where inflows and outflows must be clearly recorded. A separate statement of members' dues and payments received can be prepared easily. At the end of each month, the new treasurer must prepare a statement of inflow and statement of outflow. Don't let the new treasurer get into the maze of debits and credits. A simple form of transactional statements can be prepared. A budget can be prepared by looking at last year's budget. The treasurer should seek help from past treasurers, senior Rotarians, and members who are finance professionals. – Ashish Makhija
- Reassurance: The best treasurers are often people without financial background. What is needed is meticulous care for detail and a bit of logical thinking. Set him or her up with a simple spreadsheet where every transaction is entered with a transaction code, which makes for easy analysis over any period using auto-filter or a similar technique. Explain carefully how it works to train him or her in its use. Instill the maxim of “do it now .” Treasurers who get in a muddle are usually those who accumulate transactions for several weeks and then try to do the entries in bulk rather than as the transactions occur. Compare your books with bank statements at the end of every month, and make sure any discrepancies have been sorted out. Based on transaction records, accounts can be presented in a number of different ways; choose to do it in a way that gives maximum disclosure and complete transparency to club members and others. – Leslie Cowan
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Your club website is out-of-date
Your club website has not been updated in more than two years. You volunteer to be the site administrator and want to redesign it. What will you include on the club's new website?
- Your club website should include the following: (1) meeting time and location, (2) up-to-date content, (3) subject matter for your intended audience, and (4) an explanation of what Rotary is. For this, you could use RI's excellent YouTube videos or make your own. Remember that your website serves in two capacities: (1) as a place for your members to get club information and (2) as a portal for other people to see who and what you are. – Terry Bass
- Last year we started a blog, which keeps members informed about important forthcoming events, in addition to the club’s weekly magazine. This was created by the younger members who are more tech savvy and prefer e-mail messages that are distributed through e-groups created on Google. – C.J. Singh
- A club site needs interactive forums in addition to a calendar and information. We even incorporated a private messaging system. Nobody absent from a meeting will be left in the dark now. – Mykel Edwards
- Because of the generational gap, I look at things differently. For example, a key board was the pegboard we hung the keys on after servicing a vehicle at my place of employment. Java script was the information on the Maxwell House coffee can. A facebook was a kid who spent all his time in the library. Multitasking was eating breakfast while putting on our clothes for school. Uploading was getting watermelons we had just borrowed into our pickup truck. You probably get the picture. So I had to KISS (keep it simple, stupid) my past goodbye and start anew. With no HTML knowledge and limited computer skills, I produce our club’s website using the following programs: Microsoft Publisher 2003 to create the site, CorelDraw Graphics to create graphics such as our location map, Adobe Photoshop Elements to edit and size photos for placing on the site, and NCH Swift Sound to format music to use on the site. We contract with a professional web designer to publish online for a nominal annual fee. The site is paid for through sponsor links. – Roy Kaple
- Using PayPal, we have added the ability to receive payments on our website for the Paul Harris busts that other clubs buy from us to give out as club awards, and for tickets to fundraising events that are open to the public. In our members section, we post the minutes from each board meeting and keep the directory fresh as new members come into the club. It's a lot of work, but visitors to Sedona, Arizona, USA, find our club through our website, and we bring in a bit of money. So, it's worth the time and effort. – Miki Dzugan
- Our website relies heavily on content from Rotary International. We have embedded Rotary's YouTube videos on our membership and End Polio Now pages. In other areas of the site, we use embedded photo slideshows from our Flickr photo albums to tell our club's story. We have an embedded blog that serves as our newsletter. The blog and the calendar are updated frequently, while other areas of our website do not require frequent updating. All members are encouraged to photograph events and forward the photos to our webmaster for use on Flickr and our site. We are also on Facebook, and the link to that account, our YouTube channel, and Flickr are included on our contact page. We used a template from our website hosting company rather than the ClubRunner template so that our site would stand out from those of other Rotary clubs. – Rae Shirer
- I think a club or district website must have interactive forums or discussion boards in addition to standard Rotary information. A photo gallery, a latest news section, space for Rotaractors, club or district bylaws, upcoming events, and office holders' contact information are all a must. – Bilal Fazal
- We incorporate news and Twitter feeds into our site as well as a club blog. Our calendar is actually an embedded Google calendar. By doing this, we have a dynamic website and can spread the tasks around. One member updates the calendar; others handle the blog. – Ray Sanford
- You have to decide who your website is aimed at – members of the club, members of the public, or both. I suggest that the home page and those immediately accessible from it should be aimed at the public; these public pages can be written so that they do not need to be revised very often. Information for members, which is usually the part that changes quite frequently, can be a password-protected members section. A programs page on the public part of the website may also be useful, as prospective members can see the sort of activities the club gets involved in. – Robert Strachan
- The more information you can provide, the better. Providing basic Rotary information that the public can access from your site is a good idea. Remember who is using the site. Anything you can provide that would play to their interest is worth adding. Create your own Facebook page or social networking group, and be sure to mention them on your website. Multimedia elements, including video, pictures, and podcasts, are also appealing. Include easy access to applications and forms, as well as speaker schedules and task and committee lists. Password-protected sections for private, members-related information are a good idea too. Most district sites and Rotary International have RSS feeds that allow you to pull information from their sites into yours. A digital directory on your site would also be very useful to your members. Encourage your members to submit information to you so you can minimize what you have to come up with to add. – Tom Ayres
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