Rotary Club of Scottsdale welcomed Beth Garrow, The Rotary International Foundation's (TRF) Zone 26 Regional Major Gifts Officer. Beth joined the Rotary Club of Hawthorne, CA in 1989 and was an active member of the Rotary Club of Joliet, IL before joining California's Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary Club in 2016.During Ms. Garrow's introduction, Rotarian and TRF Major Donor Bob Murray stated that Ms. Garrow, joined TRF in June 2016 as a seasoned major gifts officer with a 25-year development career in K-12, higher education, as well as, healthcare in Illinois and California.
During her talk, Ms. Garrow stated that TRF is four-star rated with 92% ROI within Charity Navigator - the nation's largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities. During 2019, over $391.5 million dollars was raised with most being directed towards RI global grants ($100 million), PolioPlus grants ($151.2 million); RI District grants ($27.8 million) and Rotary Peace Fellowship education ($5 million). After three years, fifty percent of TRF gift monies donated by Rotarians are returned to the donor's respective RI District for future domestic and international Club projects.
Per Ms. Garrow, The Rotary Foundation is the best charitable organization in the world. RI and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently renewed their longstanding partnership to end polio, announcing a joint commitment of up to $450 million to support the global polio eradication effort. Rotary has contributed more that $2 billion to fight polio, including matching funds from the Gates Foundation, and countless volunteer hours since launching its polio eradication program, PolioPlus in 1985. In 1988, RI formed the Global Polio Eradication Initiative with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Gates Foundation and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, later joined. When the initiative was launched, there were 350,000 cases of polio every year. Today the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 percent.
Jim Bissonett, RI District 5495 Rotary Foundation Chair, joined Ms. Garrow in further updating the attendees about the RI District 5495's goal to raise $2 million in additional funds for the Rotary Foundation through Major Gifts. A Major Gift is $10,000 or more pledged or donated between January 1, 2019 and May 31, 2020. A Major Gift amount is a minimum contribution of $10,000 or more of outright cash which can be given over three years or a minimum planned giving amount of $10,000 or more as a estate or legacy bequest gift at death. Bissonett noted that major contributors will be invited to celebrate at a black-tie dinner to be held in June 2020 at Paradise Valley's Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain.