Message from The Rotary Foundation Chair- "Using Future Vision as a window to the future"

The Future Vision Plan pilot starts 1 July. The Rotary Foundation has invested great care and considerable background work into this plan. Based on the findings of two consulting firms and the responses of 10,000 Rotarians to a comprehensive questionnaire, the Future Vision Committee and Foundation Trustees have worked hard to move forward with the Future Vision Plan.

The Rotary Foundation has been very successful over the years. Yet, as the world changes, our Foundation needs to change with it. Cooperation with other organizations is the future, and The Rotary Foundation must not fail to get on board. We need to sharpen our vision and expand our ambitions. Today people do not join organizations – they join causes. We need to take advantage of what we have learned from our polio eradication program: We need to think big.

When we received the substantial contributions from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we could handle them easily because we had built up the administration of PolioPlus over a period of more than 20 years. But if we were to receive grants of a similar size for other programs, it is not clear that clubs and districts would be prepared to effectively manage and utilize the funding, or that the Foundation’s administration, as it stands today, could handle such gifts.

The Future Vision Plan will move more responsibility, control, and flexibility to districts and clubs to allow them to monitor their own funds. Never forget that The Rotary Foundation belongs to Rotarians. When districts and clubs take advantage of this opportunity, staff at our offices around the world will be freed to work on other issues that will further enhance the future of the Foundation.

Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar
Foundation Trustee Chair