About
The Rotary Foundation is Rotary International’s global philanthropy organisation. It transforms gifts into service projects that change lives both close to home and around the world. The Rotary Foundation has eleven affiliate bodies around the world and Rotary Foundation Australia is one of these. Rotary Foundation Australia enables people and organisations in Australia to make contributions that are tax deductible in Australia.
Image above shows Past Chair of The Rotary Foundation / Past Rotary International President John Germ with Rotary International Director and Rotary Foundation Australia Director Jessie Harman.
To best comply with Australian tax regulations, Rotary Foundation Australia has established two funds to which donors can contribute:
The Australian Rotary Foundation Trust (TARFT) uses contributions to fund projects in developing countries that are approved by the Australian Government,
Rotary Foundation Australia PBI uses contributions to fund projects within Australia.
Our Directors
To manage its activities, Rotary Foundation Australia has appointed a board of highly qualified directors, with extensive experience in business, government, philanthropy, community activities, Rotary processes and corporate governance. it includes Rotary International Director, Jessie Harman.
Our Causes
Rotary Foundation Australia shares The Rotary Foundation’s mission of enabling Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education and the alleviation of poverty.
There is a very large number of worthwhile community projects in Australia and overseas that Rotary could choose to support. However, The Rotary Foundation has chosen to focus on seven critical causes:
along with ending polio and responding to disasters.
These causes align closely with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Top industry rating for Fourteen years
It is by supporting great causes and following clearly defined processes that Rotary Foundation Australia’s parent organisation, The Rotary Foundation, has – every year for well over a decade – received the highest possible rating of the leading charity assessment organisation, Charity Navigator.
How are gifts used?
General donations to Rotary Foundation Australia are directed to Rotary Foundation Australia’s overseas aid fund.
Donors who wish to support significant projects within Australia, to relieve the sickness, suffering, misfortune or poverty of people in need, can make their contribution to Rotary Foundation Australia’s Public Benevolent Institution (PBI).
Sometimes, when a donor wishes to support a specific Rotary project, they enter into a Directed Gift Agreement that directs their gift towards a specific cause and to the Rotary District whose project(s) they have agreed to support. The minimum contribution for a Directed Gift Agreement is A$50,000. These donors are usually corporations or wealthy individuals and often they will have their own Private Ancillary Fund.
In some cases, these donors already have a specific project that they wish to pursue, in which case Rotary Foundation Australia can put them in touch with an appropriate district or club within Australia with whom they can work to implement the project.
Alternatively, districts and clubs within Australia can let Rotary Foundation Australia know about projects they wish to pursue that they believe will be attractive to corporate donors or wealthy individuals in Australia.
While Rotary Foundation Australia is not limited in the beneficiaries we can support, our PBI places particular focus on five groups:
Indigenous Australians
Refugees
Homeless
Victims of domestic violence
Victims of disasters, such as floods, fires and drought
All major Rotary projects, whether funded wholly by a donor or jointly with The Rotary Foundation, need to:
Be compliant with Australian tax law
Address one or more of our causes
Meet the well-researched needs of the group being assisted
Be demonstrably sustainable in the long term
In addition, these projects must be evaluated and reported upon after completion, to ensure compliance with these requirements and to confirm that the funds have been used as agreed. Our large donors receive copies
Rotary Foundation Australia ensures that projects are compliant with Australian tax law and it has entered into an agency agreement with The Rotary Foundation in relation to these and other matters.
Major projects are the subject of Global Grant applications made by the relevant Australian Rotary district or club to The Rotary Foundation, whose staff ensure that the project meets these levels of probity.
Rotary Foundation Australia directors are Rotary members who provide their services to RFA on a fully voluntary basis. RFA receives support from Rotary International’s secretariat and does not employ staff.
No fees are charged by RFA for the donations it receives. Also, RFA’s parent organisation, The Rotary Foundation, does not generally charge fees for the donations it receives, except that a 5% administration fee is charged on •Directed Gifts and •cash paid directly into Global Grants.
The Foundation’s unusually low fees are made possible by its extremely low overheads. This is one reason the Foundation receives such high ratings from charity ratings agencies. For financial details, please visit the annual reports of The Rotary Foundation and Rotary International, as well as the TRF rating page at Charity Navigator.
History
In 1994, a number of highly distinguished Rotarians in Australia, led by Past Rotary International President Clem Renouf, and including Royce Abby and John Carrick, were appointed as Trustees of The Australian Rotary Foundation Trust (TARFT). The trust was set up to hold donations made to The Rotary Foundation in Australia.
TARFT was registered with the Australian Taxation Office as a charity with deductible gift recipient status, provided that the funds are used solely for projects in developing countries approved by the Australian Government. It operates as a Developing Country Relief Fund administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). A very large number of high-impact international projects have been funded by TARFT since its creation.
Following registration during 2016 of Rotary Foundation Australia Ltd (RFAL), on 1 January 2017 this company became the corporate trustee of TARFT and the individual Trustees became directors of RFAL.
Any donation made through the Donate button on this website, or on that of Rotary International, which is paid in Australian dollars by members is automatically directed to the Developing Country Relief Fund operated by TARFT.
In 2020, a new company was registered called Rotary Foundation Australia (PBI) Ltd. In late 2020, that company was approved as a Public Benevolent Institution (PBI) by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) and as a result given table 1 deductible gift recipient (DGR 1) status by the Australian Taxation Office. This means that, not only can RFA’s PBI provide tax-deductible receipts, but it can use its funds for projects within Australia.
Its DGR1 status distinguishes Rotary Foundation Australia’s charity from most private charities within Australia, known as Private Ancillary Funds and Public Ancillary Funds (PAFs), which have DGR2 status. DGR2 charities can issue tax-deductible receipts for donations but they cannot directly fund projects – they must donate their funds to a charity with DGR1 status – such as RFA’s PBI.
The condition of tax deductibility for Rotary Foundation Australia’s PBI is that these funds must be used to relieve the sickness, suffering, misfortune or poverty of people in need. Those people can be anywhere in the world but TARFT already funds projects in developing countries through its Developing Country Relief Fund and RFA’s intention is that its PBI will primarily fund projects within Australia.