The Board of the San Francisco Rotary Foundation (SFRF) met on September 16, 2020. President Dan Joraanstad welcomed everyone. Below are some highlights from that meeting:
Update on the 50/50 Campaign: Excitement and opportunity circulated around the fact that an announcement letter and pledge form were about to go to members via mail. This “snail mail” would be followed by an email blast to be sent the week after the letters were mailed. As of October 1, 2020, $57,000 in pledges toward the $100,000 goal had been received.
Donna-Lee Rubin: Our Board is comprised of 17 members. Donna-Lee Rubin, one of the Board members, relocated to Florida to take care of her mother. Being at a distance with many responsibilities, Donna resigned as a member of the Board. She was thanked for her service.
Roots of Peace Interim Report: Eric Schmautz reported that the Interim Report for this project had at last been approved. He hoped that the Final Report would be available in short order.
Report on Investments: Brent Cunningham reported on the status of the investment accounts. He added that the accounts were well positioned, even in the case of a market downturn.
New Investment Policy Statement: After work by the Finance Committee and review by the Board, a new and much clarified investment directive was put in place. The spending policy was adjusted to allow for a 4% distribution each year, based on a rolling three-year average balance taken from the three prior December closing balances. Some limitations to investments were added, including avoidance of hedge funds and alternative investments. The targeted asset allocation was termed moderate as to risk and maintains flexible range in asset classes to accommodate changing conditions.
Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer Tom Brunner shared a list of all of the 2019-2020 grants, noting that some had been canceled and traded for other grants due to the pandemic. He said that the net grants given in the prior year was $200,000 or $50,000 less than projected, due to a reduction in the ALPS program. Also, some programs were not held such as RYLA because of the pandemic. And also because of the pandemic, and a pivot in March by the Foundation, unspent money from the year was committed to Protective Personal Equipment (PPE). If you wish to see a reconciliation of these changes in funding, please feel free to request the document by sending an email to Dan Joraanstad.
For the current fiscal year, the SFRF has approved $141,100 in grants plus $30,000 in reserve, pending developments in international projects and the pandemic’s impact on our City.
Sustaining the Foundation and Restricting the Funds: President Dan noted that he had previously discussed with each Board member their views of restricting the Invested Funds. The discussion centered around whether spending of funds should be limited to 4% on an annual basis. The Executive Committee proposed that the Board restrict the spending to 4% annually. Larger distributions could only be approved if a 2/3 majority of the Board votes to lift the Board's restriction.
Colant Scholarship Update: Kevin Leong updated the Board on the Colant Scholarship and said that the awards had not been distributed for the last four years due to restrictions in the qualifications for the candidates. However, in the current fiscal year, Erma Kurtovic did earn this award. Erma will speak to the Rotary Club of San Francisco in the weeks ahead.
A lawyer reviewed the Colant Scholarship contract and advised that since the donor is deceased, the contract cannot be changed in any way. While the preference was to transfer management and selection of awards to University of San Francisco as this is the only institution where the scholarship can be awarded, the recommendation was made to have the SFRF maintain management of this scholarship.
Grant Forms Revision Update: Tim Allen, who has lifelong experience in the grant making business, as well as Carol Laughlin from Catholic Charities, also with grant experience, have been busy revising our current grant request forms. The goal was to make information clearer and more organized for both the applicants and reviewers, as well as to simplify the flow of information. The addition of examples to the grant application will make the process easier.
Action Leadership Program for Students (ALPS): Lynn Luckow reported that by the end of last year, the following formula was established – find groups of youth and their projects, find adult Rotarians, and connect the two groups to accomplish a project. He said this is a way for our Club members to be more engaged.
Lynn introduced Harmony Ma as the new ALPS director. Harmony then covered her background with youth, most recently in Seattle and Portland areas and described her vision and goals for ALPS. Kevin Leong asked about metrics and for Harmony to periodically provide an updated report on outcomes.
Next Meeting: The next meeting is scheduled for November 19, 2020 from 12 noon to 1:30 PM. The primary focus of the November meeting will be to learn how our projects for 2020-2021 are progressing. Please join us if interested.