This Month's Foundation Report
District 7780 ShareForever Million Dollar Challenge Update
By: Dave Underhill (Portsmouth RC) and Sarah MacGillivray (Bath Sunrise RC), ShareForever 7780 Team
Last November we launched the ShareForever 7780 Million Dollar Challenge. We had what seemed at the time a huge goal ahead of us. An anonymous donor set a challenge of raising one million dollars in cash and bequest gifts to The Rotary Foundation Endowment, that they would match. It is thrilling to share with you that we have not only met that challenge, but have gone above and beyond it: including the match, we have raised over $3,400,000 for the Rotary Endowments!We want to recognize our up-to-now anonymous donors and tell you more.
Thank you to everyone who made donations. We’re also incredibly thankful for our anonymous donors who inspired us. So with the sincere gratitude of every Rotarian in District 7780, it is time to recognize and thank our formerly-anonymous donors, Brenda and Dick Cressey. Brenda is a proud member of the Ogunquit Rotary Club. They inspire us with their generosity and commitment to Rotary.
Let’s look at the impact in our district, and how the Magic of Rotary is working for us. Over 1.7 million dollars of this money goes to the SHARE endowment fund earmarked for District 7780. When the bequests are realized, that 1.7 M will be paying out over $70,000 every year, EVERY YEAR! That’s over $35,000 new dollars each year for district and global grants and other Rotary causes approved by our district, such as the Poland and Kenya outreach projects, Ending Polio, supporting the peace centers, along with more to the World Fund which helps to pay for our Clubs’ Global Grant projects.
This year we had about $120,000 in available grant funds, known as district designated funds (DDF), so future members of our district will see a big jump in money available for our projects. Imagine ten more district-grants to our Clubs…like the food garden at Bath Sunrise, the new-Mainer project at Brunswick, the first responder crisis training in Dover, the home repair for seniors in Freeport, and many more. AND….imagine many tens of thousands of new dollars for our Global Grant projects, between the district money and the World Fund match. This could mean another dam in India, cardiac care in Jordan, clean water in Costa Rica, a school literacy program in Guatemala.
We are so proud of the commitment shown by the Rotarians in our district who have helped to make this all possible. They know the Magic of Rotary! They know that it is all about your projects…your Rotary passion. Who says the Endowment doesn’t have local impact? Over seventy thousand new dollars every year advancing your Club’s good work…forever! And that has encouraged us to set a new goal for our district!
We now have the District 7780 ShareForever FIVE Million Dollar Challenge! With a new challenge match from PDG Marion Cheney and her husband Harry, they will make a bequest of $250,000 endowment dollars that we will add to this campaign when our Rotarians raise the next quarter-million. That will take our district’s Endowment total close to FOUR million dollars. Won’t you join us with a bequest or current endowment gift to get to our new goal? Visit our district website’s page with information on the challenge, where you will find contact information for questions you’d like to have answered. https://rotary7780.org/page/the-shareforever-7780-endowment-challenge/
Mark your calendar for our FIVE -million-dollar ShareForever Celebration of Magic event on March 30, 2025. This is will be a very special event for everyone who has given ten thousand dollars in bequests or cash to our Rotary Endowment campaign since July 1, 2023. More details to follow on this over the upcoming months.
[Click on the images above for larger versions.]
Thank you from the ShareForever 7780 team and your district Foundation Committee.