​MobileCause offers the easiest donation option with a credit card. However, you or your club may take in a cash or check donation. Here are some helpful tips to make sure you count your offline donations.

 

Do not hold onto checks. Please process once the Offline Donation Form has been completed. Always keep copies of donation checks!

I have been involved in the Polar Plunge almost since the beginning. While I have never been able to actually plunge, I have raised money to help contribute to the Polio Plus campaign for the last three years as a “Virtual Plunger”. I’ve also been actively involved in the Plunge Committee, which is not only an amazing amount of fun but also affords one an amazing sense of accomplishment.

It was decided many moons ago that the Polio Challenge would be met with, hopefully, “Other People’s Money (OPM). I always thought that was an unusual request, but have since discovered this is the best, easiest way to pile up the donations while keeping your own checkbook at a reasonable level.

This year in particular it is very easy as you can work with your account either on your smart phone or on your desk top. Once you set up your account, all you have to do is create your fundraising email/posting, then cut and paste it to whatever media you choose to use. I use Facebook and Twitter, and have cut and pasted the message into group emails to folks I’m hoping will be major contributors.

So, while being at the event to me is essential because of the camaraderie and joy of watching others plunging into the Atlantic Ocean in January (just kidding), you don’t have to go in. You can become a VIRTUAL PLUNGER, help raise money to Eradicate Polio from the Earth and have every dollar contributed matched two to one by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Just follow the instructions elsewhere in this e-bulletin and you’ll be good to go!

 

During this season of giving and with the end of the year fast approaching, perhaps you are in the position to make a donation to The Rotary Foundation. There are so many opportunities to create impact including the Annual Fund and Polio Plus, and many ways to do so. Consider making a recurring gift of any amount through Rotary Direct and spread your contributions throughout the year. If you have extra 1,000 or more recognition points available, think about naming someone a Paul Harris Fellow as a thank you or as a holiday gift.

 

You know how important young professionals are to the future of Rotary. As Rotaractors and Rotarians, they are already leading your clubs and taking action in your communities. But you know there’s even more that your district can do. And we want to give you up to $15,000 to make it happen!

Rotary’s Young Professionals Campaign is excited to announce two grant funding opportunities to bridge the generation gap and engage young professionals in new ways:

 

To maximize impact, you can apply as a:

In early January, more information will be provided to help clubs and their members, as well as the district, locate and engage young professionals in a more direct Rotary experience.

 

At the conclusion of its second annual warm winter coat drive for the homeless and those in need, the Rotary Club of Marblehead Harbor reported the donation of a record number of coats by generous members of the Marblehead, Swampscott and Salem communities.

Coat drive chair Margo Steiner reports that, “Close to 350 coats were donated at designated drop-off locations, including Atlantic Care Audiology in Swampscott, The Enterprise Center in Salem, and Edward Jones, Coldwell Banker and the National Grand Bank in Marblehead, and to them we wish to offer our thanks.

“We also want to extend our thanks to Timberland for donating 20 brand-new winter parkas, to the Salem State University Bookstore for a large donation of warm, pink insulated jackets certain to delight young girls and to all who searched their closets in an effort to warm those in need this winter,” she said.

 

According to Steiner and Rosaleen Doherty, the club’s service committee chair, “The quality of this year’s coats were beyond anything we expected, with fully a third being brand new and with tags still attached.” The communities’ largesse was distributed two weeks before Christmas to the Salvation Army in Lynn, Citizens for Adequate Housing in Peabody for families in transition at Inn Between, the Lynn Shelter Association, and LifeBridge in Salem.

Marjorie St. Paul, executive director of the Lynn Shelter Association, likely summed it up best. “Yippee! Yahoo! Oh, wow!,” she exclaimed as staff members helped her empty what looked like a clown car filled to overflowing with bags and bags of men’s, women’s and children’s coats. “You have absolutely no idea what this means—and what it will do!”

 

The past few months in Barcelona have been extremely busy! Universitat Pompeu Fabra is certainly living up to it’s reputation of being one of the best universities in Spain. This semester I am taking a wide range of classes that are providing a solid foundation of the field of Migration Studies. My current classes include: Foundations of Immigration Policy, Sources and Tools for the Analysis of Migrations, Legal Framework of Migrations, External Dimensions of Immigration Policy, and Social Psychology. In November, we started a seven-month long seminar series, where professors from all over the world come to Barcelona to speak about current debates and trends in migration. This has been the most rewarding because we are able to interact with and learn from prominent scholars and professionals to develop our individual research. In January, we will begin to develop our master’s thesis. Apart from my studies at UPF, I also attend Spanish language courses ten hours per week.

 

• A cultural dinner to honor the Mexican celebration, the Day of the Dead. We prepared traditional Mexican dishes and decorations for the event and received 25 guests. This dinner also doubled as a fundraiser where the proceeds were used for renovations in a girls’ home in Mexico City. We collaborated with a Rotaract Club there to facilitate the project on the ground in Mexico.
• Our club volunteers at Cottolengo, a home for children and adults with mental and physical disabilities on a monthly basis. We also donated 2,000€ for supplies that help develop sensory abilities.
• Our club continues to develop fundraisers to support two international Rotary initiatives, Life for Africa and Gambasse. Both projects support health programs in Ethiopia and Guinea Bissau respectively.

 

• Basic Facebook and Twitter set up
• Planning powerful and timely posts 
• Developing your pages to maximize reach
• Creating a fan recruitment plan
• Learning how to read your stats and insights
• And more!

The response to the first Rotary Means Business meeting on November 30th has indicated a strong interest in continuing the development of this new fellowship. The skill builder presented by Andy Winig on Effective Networking Tips and Elevator Speeches was extremely well received. The survey results indicated a strong desire to build a program around mentoring.

 

The next meeting will be on January 19th at the McLane Middleton Conference Center at 300 TradeCenter in Woburn. We will start again at 6:00 pm with a short social with the presentation beginning at 6:15 pm. The opportunity to network will occur between 7 and 7:30 pm.

 

 

Our presenter will be Alan Wheelock of Jones River Consulting. For more information, please click on the link to read more.