How Rotary Handles Money
Rotary has achieved the highest rating possible from Charity Navigator, an independent organisation that monitors not-for-profits across the world. They awarded us a score of 100% and a 4-star rating, their highest.
How did we achieve this, and why should you care?
Rotary has two fundamentally different streams of income, and they are never allowed to mingle.
First, there are the membership fees paid by Rotarians. We pay to belong. These annual fees cover all club admin costs, and also go to any costs incurred by the district or higher management levels. Fees vary from time to time and from place to place, but here and now they are $200 every six months, paid by every member of the Ashgrove/The Gap club, and they go into the Club bank account.
Secondly, there are voluntary donations made by members over and above the fees, and by people or companies outside Rotary, either spontaneously or at a fund-raising event like a Bunnings sausage sizzle. These go into a separate Benevolent bank account, and are never used to cover club expenses such as room hire etc.
This means that ALL the money we collect from the public goes to good causes, and NONE of it goes to support internal bureaucracy. You can be confident that your dollar contributed means a dollar of value to someone who needs it.