Stewardship and reporting

The Rotary Foundation Board of Trustees recognizes that the funds received from Rotarians around the world are voluntary contributions reflecting hard work and dedicated support. As stewards of these funds, the Trustees stress the importance of stewardship, or proper fiscal management, in any activities associated with Foundation programs. An essential component of stewardship is the preparation and submission of timely and accurate grant reports.

Reporting requirements

The Trustees require that club and district grant sponsors submit progress reports to the Foundation every 12 months for the life of the grant and final reports within two months of the project’s completion. Although informal updates on the progress of a grant are appreciated, yearly progress and final reports must be submitted using the official Foundation report form appropriate for the grant type. Download report forms.

Matching Grants, District Simplified Grants, 3-H grants, and Volunteer Service Grants are considered non-compliant with reporting if:

• It has been more than 12 months since the last report was accepted or the last payment was made, OR
• The last report received was found to be incomplete

Clubs and districts cannot receive new grants if they are non-compliant with reporting for a previously awarded grant. If 15 months pass and an acceptable report has not been received, sponsoring clubs and districts receive a series of warning letters to alert them of the overdue report and to inform them of the consequences of non-reporting.

The Foundation relies on timely grant reporting to ensure funds are spent appropriately and are managed with proper oversight. For this reason, the Trustees have established the following consequences for grants that are severely overdue on reporting:

• When a report is 21 months or more overdue on reporting, the primary sponsors are posted on the overdue grant reporting list.
• If an acceptable report has not been received for more than 30 months—or two and a half years—the primary sponsors may be recommended to the RI Board of Directors for termination

Foundation staff work closely with the sponsors of severely overdue grants to help them successfully complete reporting requirements and avoid such consequences. However, to ensure that clubs and districts do not get to this stage, it is crucial that grant sponsors respond to the Foundation immediately upon receiving a warning letter and collaborate with their partners to successfully submit a report.

Overdue grant reporting list

The clubs and districts on the overdue grant reporting list have not fulfilled the reporting requirements for their humanitarian grants for more than 21 months. For this reason, the Foundation has identified them as partners whose reliability cannot be verified.

This list is updated each quarter. To be removed, club or district sponsors must submit acceptable reports for all of their overdue grants. Club and district leaders may contact Humanitarian Grants Program staff or The Rotary Foundation's Contact Center for a list of these grants. Once a club or district has fulfilled all reporting requirements, it will be removed from the list the next time an update is made.

World Reporting

World Reporting is an initiative of the Trustees created in 2006 to help ensure that Foundation grant funds are reported in an accurate and timely manner. Semiannual World Reporting Analyses are conducted approximately two weeks ahead of the October and April Trustees meetings. These analyses evaluate the compliance level of each Rotary district by calculating the percentage of grants sponsored by the district and its member clubs that are current and compliant with reporting requirements. World Reporting calculations include all humanitarian grants that have received partial or full payment at the time of the analysis.

While the goal is for each district to be 100% compliant with its grant reporting, all districts are required to meet a minimum compliance level of 70%. Districts found to be less than 70% compliant for two or more consecutive analyses, with more than one non-compliant grant in each analysis, risk suspension from participation in the Foundation's Humanitarian Grants program.

April 2009 World Reporting Analysis

The April 2009 World Reporting analysis identified 174 districts that were 100% compliant with reporting. The Trustees commend these districts for their achievement and hope that they will serve as role models for other districts by maintaining this high level of stewardship. View a list of districts that were 100% compliant.

The analysis also identified eight districts that were less than 70% compliant with reporting for two or more consecutive analyses and had more than one non-compliant grant in each analysis. In accordance with Foundation policy, the Trustees suspended these districts from participation in the Humanitarian Grants program, effective 15 May 2009. These districts will be lifted from suspension when they reach 90% reporting compliance and have successfully reported on all district-sponsored grants. View a list of districts currently suspended for World Reporting.

For more information about World Reporting, please view these frequently asked questions.