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GLOBAL GRANTS

Learning to Lead

Friday, September 29

3:30-4:00 PM

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STEVE SUNDSTROM

USA (most of Zone 32)
Australia & Pacific Islands
Japan

RENÉE REILING

USA & Canada (most of Zone 28)
USA – other
Caribbean

CECELIA WALTER

USA & Canada (parts of Zone 28 and Zone 32)
USA – other
Philippines
Japan

Regional Grants Officers for Zone 28 and Zone 32

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GLOBAL GRANTS

We have 30 minutes:

Overview of global grants
Examples of global grants
Best practices
Statistics

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Large, long-term projects
Sustainable, measurable outcomes
Alignment with areas of focus
International partnership
$30,000 minimum budget
80% World Fund match for DDF

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GLOBAL GRANTS

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Takeaway

Global Grants are community investments

Global grants support large international activities with sustainable, measurable outcomes in Rotary’s areas of focus. A key feature of global grants is partnership, between the club or district where the activity is carried out and a club or district in another country.

Global grants can support humanitarian projects, scholarships, and vocational training teams. Global grant scholarships support international graduate and post-graduate study for a period of 1-4 years. Global grant vocational training teams support groups of professionals to travel abroad to provide or receive training.

Global grants have a minimum budget of $30,000. The maximum World Fund award amount that one can request as a match is $400,000, though the grants themselves have no maximum limit. Grant sponsors can use a combination of District Designated Funds (DDF), cash, and/or directed gifts and endowment earnings to fund a global grant. The Foundation will provide an 80 percent World Fund match for all DDF contributions.

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OUR CAUSES: THE AREAS OF FOCUS

Peacebuilding and conflict prevention
Disease prevention and treatment
Water, sanitation, and hygiene
Maternal and child health
Basic education and literacy
Community economic development
Environment

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GLOBAL GRANT - HUMANITARIAN PROJECT

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GLOBAL GRANT - SCHOLARSHIP

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“Vocational training team empowers fathers in Mongolia”, Rotary Voices, 27 Sept 2022.
“Lessons in Fatherhood”, Rotary magazine, Sept 2022 issue.

"The entire project underscored how the role of fathers is too often overlooked and underserved.“

– Jennifer Scott, Rotary Club of Central Blue Mountains

GLOBAL GRANT – VOCATIONAL TRAINING TEAM

In February 2019, a request to conduct a preliminary review was received for a vocational training team to go to Erdenet, Mongolia. They sent:

A five-page community assessment conducted in March 2018
Proposed itineraries for two teams (one to Mongolia and one to Australia)
A four-page project summary including immediate and long-term goals, list of main activities, list of main counterparts, expected outcomes, project time frame, and contacts.

An application was submitted 8 March 2019, with a budget of about $32,000, “to provide family dispute resolution training to court-appointed legal mediators, State-employed social workers, and approved local NGOs qualified for conflict management and alternate dispute resolution to support single fathers with parenting skills, child rights, conflict competency training in Erdenet, Mongolia, co-sponsored by Rotary clubs in Australia and Mongolia. It was approved 4 April 2019 with a split payment of award to both sponsors in May 2019.

The sponsors sent a “project kick off” email in July 2019 when the Australian team arrived in Mongolia. A project progress report was submitted in May 2020, and since they had leftover funds, additional translations of court mediation documents were translated into Mongolian, and a final report was submitted in November 2021 to close the grant, which was also flagged for publicity.

In September 2022, the project was featured in both Rotary magazine and the Rotary Voices blog. (GG1876956)

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REGIONAL GRANTS OFFICER ROLE: Global Grants

Review submitted application by host district

Review scholarships by international district

Evaluation with Area of Focus Managers as appropriate

Ask sponsors questions

“Invite” RGOs to pre-review

Provide sponsors guidance

Final grant decisions

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1. CONDUCT A COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT

Assess the community’s strengths, weaknesses, needs, and assets.
Design your project based on those results.
Include details from the assessment in your application.

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The first and most important step when you’re developing a project is to conduct a thorough community assessment. This assessment explores the community’s strengths, weaknesses, needs, and assets. It’s essential to planning an effective project. By making the effort to learn about the community, you can identify the most relevant opportunities for projects and ensure that your club will make a meaningful impact.

Any club or district that applies for a global grant to support a humanitarian project or a vocational training team needs to conduct a community assessment first, then design the project based on the results of that assessment.

In your global grant application, explain clearly how you conducted your assessment and describe the methods you used. These might include surveys, interviews, or community mapping. Explain who you spoke to and identify the specific people in the community who have agreed to help lead the project. Describe in detail what you learned from the assessment and explain how the project you’re proposing grew out of what you learned. You can attach a separate form with the results of your community assessment, if you need to.

You can find more information in the Community Assessment Tools guide in My Rotary. Your district leaders can help you conduct your assessment.

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2. CONSULT RESOURCES

A Guide to Global Grants
Grant terms and conditions
Area of focus policy statements
Grant management seminar
Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers
District resource networks

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Once you’ve conducted your community assessment, the next step to developing a strong application is to become familiar with the resources that can help you. Before you start your application, read A Guide to Global Grants. This manual includes everything you need to know to get started.

You should also read the global grant terms and conditions and the area of focus policy statements. These documents are available in My Rotary. Pay special attention to the sections that specify what can and can’t be included in your project. You can avoid disappointment by ensuring that all the elements of your application are eligible for global grant funding.

We encourage all members who are interested in applying for a global grant to complete the grant management seminar. It includes courses on conducting a community assessment, planning an effective project, making your project sustainable, managing grant finances, qualifying your club for Rotary grants, reporting on grants, and more. As we mentioned earlier, for clubs to become qualified, they need to complete this seminar as stipulated by their district.

Another excellent resource is The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers. Cadre members have professional expertise in our areas of focus as well as in financial auditing. You can ask Cadre members about technical and regional matters, planning and implementing projects, and navigating the grant application process.

District resource networks consist of local experts and mentors who work with clubs to develop stronger projects. They can also help you with the global grant process. Ask your district international service chair if your district has a resource network.

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3. SELECT AN AREA OF FOCUS

Choose an area of focus.
Ensure that all project activities relate to the area of focus goals.

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4. REQUEST A PRELIMINARY REVIEW

Contact your regional grants officer to make sure your project is eligible.
Request a review early in your planning.

Preferably with the following:

Community Assessment results
Selected Area of Focus
Sustainability components
Draft budget

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Once you have a general idea of the project you’d like to do, you can ask your regional grants officer for a preliminary review of your application. Grants staff members rely on the Foundation’s long experience in funding effective projects and on their own professional and educational expertise. They can help you make sure your projects are eligible for grant funding.

Email your regional grants officer to ask for this preliminary review. They’ll review your draft application and let you know if you need to address any issues before you formally submit your application through the Grant Center.

Preliminary reviews are most successful early during your planning. If the project has been completely planned, it’s much more difficult to make any needed changes. We don’t want your club to spend hours developing a plan and then learn at the end that the activity isn’t eligible for a global grant. So, contact the grants team early in the process. They’ll be happy to help you!

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5. INCLUDE A DETAILED �IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

Include all your project activities.
Explain how community members helped design and will be involved in implementing the project.

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6. PREPARE AN ITEMIZED BUDGET

Provide a detailed budget.
Include the names of suppliers.
Explain how you selected those suppliers.

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7. EXPLAIN YOUR SUSTAINABILITY PLANS

Clearly explain how community members will support, manage, and maintain the project.
Pay special attention to:

Training
Measurement and evaluation
Financial sustainability

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A key feature of a global grant-funded project is that the activities are intended to continue after the grant funding ends. It’s important to clearly explain how the community will take over the project and be able to support and continue it.

As part of your sustainability plans, include detailed information for each training opportunity presented in the application. Sometimes clubs answer “not applicable” or “N/A” to questions about training. However, training is a required part of virtually every global grant-funded project, and you need to provide a complete training plan with your application. Also include detailed information about how you plan to measure and evaluate the outcomes of the project and explain how the project will be financially sustainable.

This graphic outlines six specific ways in which you can make your project more sustainable. Be sure to address each point when you detail your project’s long-term sustainability plans. You can also find this information in A Guide to Global Grants.

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8. INCLUDE A PLAN TO MEASURE �AND EVALUATE YOUR IMPACT

Incorporate measurement and evaluation into your project plan.
Identify measures that are clearly linked to the project’s goals.
Explain how you’ll collect data and how often you’ll do so.
Specify who’ll be responsible for collecting the data.

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As we mentioned, it’s important to have a plan for measuring and evaluating the outcomes of your project, and to clearly explain that plan in your application. When you start to develop your project plan, decide how you’ll measure the outcomes and impact. By measuring the outcomes, we can determine the impact that we have in a community and understand the positive long-term changes that result.

As part of your measurement and evaluation plan, you’ll identify measures that will help demonstrate the project’s impact on people’s lives, knowledge, or health. The measures you select should be clearly linked to your project’s goals.

For each measure, you’ll identify the method for collecting data and how frequently you’ll do so. The Foundation has provided several measures for each area of focus goal that you can choose from. You can also add your own project measures.

The application will ask you to specify who’ll be responsible for collecting data for your project and to explain how that person is qualified for the task.

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9. INCLUDE DOCUMENTS FOR EACH COOPERATING ORGANIZATION

Include a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for each cooperating organization.
Clearly identify the responsibilities of the cooperating organization and of the sponsor clubs.

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Many clubs have found it helpful to work with cooperating organizations on global grant projects. A cooperating organization is any reputable non-Rotary organization or academic institution that provides expertise, infrastructure, advocacy, training, education, or other support for the project.

If you plan to work with a cooperating organization, you’ll need to complete a memorandum of understanding, or MOU. This document should clearly explain all the responsibilities of the cooperating organization and of the sponsor clubs. Be sure to include the document with the grant application. If you’ll be working with more than one organization, include an MOU for each group.

Remember that under Rotary’s conflict of interest policy, no member of the grant committee can be on the board of a cooperating organization.

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10. PROVIDE COMPLETE ANSWERS

Provide detailed answers to all the application questions.
Don’t leave items blank or say “not applicable.”
In the project overview, be concise.

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One of the most important things you can do to improve your global grant application is to provide complete answers to all the questions. Make sure that you give as much detail as possible. If you leave something blank or unclear, the grant officer will need to ask for clarification, which will delay the process. Whenever you can, avoid answering a question with “not applicable” or “N/A.”

It’s important to include details, but there’s one place where we encourage you to be concise. That’s the overview. This is where you’ll provide a general description of the project, including the main objectives and who will benefit. This section is not where you should describe why you are implementing the project or explain its importance. You’ll provide that information later in the application.

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GRANT STATISTICS

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2022-23 GRANT STATISTICS (UNAUDITED)

District grants

473 grants

$27.8 million

Global grants

1,098 grants

$68.6 million

Disaster response grants

321 grants

$14.7 million

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2022-23 GRANT STATISTICS – WORLDWIDE�(UNAUDITED)

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Grant type	Number of grants approved	Total funding
Disaster response grants	321	$14,788,668
District grants	473	$27,877,138
Global grants	1,098	$68,681,428

Area of focus	Number of grants	Activity type	Number of grants
Environment	57	Humanitarian	899
Basic education and literacy	101	Humanitarian/VTT	7
Community economic development	129	Scholar	174
Disease prevention and treatment	481	VTT	18
Maternal and child health	102
Peacebuilding and conflict prevention	65
Water, sanitation, and hygiene	163

Global grant areas of focus and activity types

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2022-23 GRANT STATISTICS – ZONES 28 & 32�(UNAUDITED)

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Grant type	Number of grants approved	Total funding
District grants	40	$2,018,919
Global grants	118	$6,525,405
Disaster Response grants	27	$654,884

Area of focus	# of Grants	Activity type	# of grants
Environment	10	Humanitarian (host sponsor)	3
Basic education and literacy	12	Humanitarian (host sponsor)	3
Basic education and literacy	12	Humanitarian (international sponsor)	83
Community economic development	18	Scholar (host sponsor)	13
Disease prevention and treatment	37	Scholar (international sponsor)	16
Maternal and child health	13	VTT (host sponsor)	2
Peacebuilding and conflict prevention	9	Humanitarian/VTT (international sponsor)	1
Water, sanitation, and hygiene	19

Global grant areas of focus and activity types

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QUESTIONS