Foundation — Murrieta Rotarians hear that word at virtually every club meeting.  And that’s because members are totally committed to doing good, at home and abroad, and it’s the foundation, actually foundations, that make it possible.

The foundations are the funding source for most Rotary service projects.

Murrieta’s foundation

Murrieta Rotary has its own foundation, which conducts one major fundraiser each year, the Patriots Ball, and other smaller revenue generators that together provide the financial support for all the service projects the club undertakes.

They may be community service oriented — like activities for special needs populations and advancing literacy, granting large sums for scholarships to local college-bound students and sending teens to leadership programs. Or they may be international in scope, funding clean water wells in places where people die from contaminated water, fixing smiles (cleft lips and palets) on youngsters in impoverished countries and developing poor villages into more self-sufficient ones.

It all happens because of the club foundation’s ability to raise the money.

The Murrieta foundation also maintains an endowment that it calls the Murrieta Rotary Legacy Fund.  Gifts to this fund, primarily from members, are retained in perpetuity, with investment earnings over time being available to support club activities.

Rotary International’s foundation

And then there’s the giant — the Rotary International Foundation supported by members in the 35,000 clubs spread throughout the world.  Resources of RI’s foundation fund international emphasis area projects and has been largely responsible for Polio Plus, the campaign now in its final stages to eradicate the crippling and deadly disease everywhere in the world.  Much of what our members give to this foundation comes back to local clubs and districts in various ways.