Update: Clubs have approved an amendment to the District budget to reallocate a portion of the remaining unspent funds in the District towards emergency relief. As a result, all 24 Emergency Grant Requests will now be funded in full.
The Rotary Foundation has allocated $3 million for Emergency COVID Relief for all Districts. In response to that, our District requested and received a grant of $25,000 - the maximum for any District - for Emergency COVID-19 relief efforts in the District.
In order to distribute the grants, the Districts asked Club to submit grant request projects in any of 4 areas: (1) Food Supplies for Food delivery services catering to seniors and disabled, (2) Food supplies for Food pantries. (3) Food supplies for child-care services for children of emergency workers and health care workers and (4) supplies for children learning remotely who do not have access to computers or internet. To be able to distribute the funds more widely, the grant range was set at between $1,000 and $2,500.
There was an overwhelming response to the call - with 24 Clubs requesting grants totaling over $56,500. In addition to the $25,000 from the Rotary Foundation, the District was able to add another $5,000 from the response to the emergency appeal, making the total available funds to nearly $30,000, nearly $26,500 short of the total requirements. The Grants Review Committee decided not to deny any grant request. As such, each project was apportioned 53.9% of their request which exhausted all available funds. The District Treasurer has begun sending out the checks directly to the recipient organizations.