Thursday, November 11 will be our annual Rotary Foundation event “A Celebration of Our Heroes” starting at 5:30 PM at the Danversport. The evening will include a social hour, silent auction, dinner, and Paul Harris Fellowship (PHF) presentations.

Registration is now open!

Rotary International requires Rotary Clubs to segregate their financial activity between Operations and Charitable Activities. At a minimum, this should be done by utilizing separate bank accounts for operating funds (dues, meal income and expenses, etc.) and charitable activities (donations received and project expenses incurred). However, even with this clear segregation between operations and charitable activities, donations made to Rotary Clubs are generally not tax-deductible, because Rotary Clubs are organized under chapter 501(c)4 of the IRS code. 

For this very reason, several Rotary Clubs have successfully created a separate second legal entity, typically called the "Rotary Club of XXX Charitable Foundation" and then applied for section 501(c)3 status with the IRS for that second entity. This setup then allows Rotary Clubs to fund-raise for charitable projects through this charitable non-profit organization and thus provide their donors with the benefits of those donations generally being tax-deductible.

On September 16th, District 7930 hosted a Zoom webinar where we discussed in more detail what a 501(c)3 charitable / non-profit entity is, what the minimum requirements are to operate one, and how to set one up. Our speakers, Elizabeth Roth, Esq. and Ed David, CPA - members of the Rotary Club of Greater Salem, NH - are experienced in the process of setting up such entities and consulting with non-profit organizations. We also had members of Rotary Clubs attending, who have set up their own 501(c)3 charitable entity in the past, and spoke about their experience and results.