Our program was the annual meeting of the CP Rotary Community Foundation led by Chair Dave Sargent. The program discussed the definition of the Foundation, the current financial status of it, the story of Darol Rasmussen's life and his role in creating the Foundation, and the main issues that the Foundation is currently working on. Dave announced an opening on the Foundation's Board (due to Roger Hassler's moving to Idaho) and encouraged members to contact either Anne Eckert or Dave if they are interested in serving on the Foundation's Board. Dave Crofut announced interest, but others may do the same. Dave explained with a simple Venn Diagram the difference between the RI Foundation and our foundation, the CP Rotary Community Foundation. The RI Foundation is controlled by Rotary International and has worldwide, global concerns. The Cameron Park Rotary Community Foundation was created and is controlled locally by board members for our club. It includes the Darol Rasmussen Endowment Fund, other funds from our local club and provides a non-profit, tax-deductible vehicle for other local organizations to hold their funds until they are needed for their charitable causes. Ben Foulk and Dave Sargent told us about late CP Rotarian and renaissance-man Darol Rasmussen's life and qualities that led to him setting up a matching grant for $100,000 to kick off the founding of an Endowment fund that could fund grants for local people interested in vocational careers. Other members did match the $100,000 for a starting endowment of $200,000. Today, despite dispursing thousands of dollars in grants over the years, the balance is over $288K and over $60K of that is available for disbursement in grants. Dave told us that the four major issues that the Foundation Board is currently concerned with are: 1. Continued recruitment of grant candidates; 2. Communication between Club and Foundation; 3. Improve communication with organizations being served; and 4. Reexamination of established grant criteria. This link will take you to a recorded video (filmed by our Laurie Edwards) of this program on a Vimeo web page. |