Foundation Donations During COVID-19 Closures

By Elizabeth Davis, Annual Giving Officer, Zone 24 East & Zone 32, Elizabeth.Davis@rotary.org

As time goes on, I will continue to do my best to keep you all up to date on how COVID-19 is affecting operations for the Foundation and donor giving.

As you all probably know by now, the majority of Rotary staff have been working remotely from home since last week. As of Saturday evening, a statewide shelter-in-place order went into effect across Illinois meaning that residents may only leave their places of residence to carry out essential activities (such as going to the grocery store, seeking medical attention, etc.). This means that until the order is lifted, no personnel are now being permitted to enter Rotary’s One Rotary Center build-ing.

Here’s what that means for our donors:

1. The Rotary Support Center does not have phone or contribution processing capabilities at this time. They are only available to answer inquiries via email. Their email address is rotarysupportcenter@rotary.org. Members should not email contributions to this email address.

2. Any contributions sent to One Rotary Center will not be processed for some time. Additionally, our capability for accepting faxed contributions has also been placed on hold indefinitely. We highly encourage members who would like to contribute to do so online at myrotary.org/donate. Club officers do have the option to donate on behalf of their club members once they sign in. This link will give the instructions: https://my.rotary.org/en/node/334806 . You need to be signed in to My Rotary.

3. At this time, our lockbox address, The Rotary Foundation 14280 Collections Center Drive, Chicago IL 60693, listed on contribution forms is active. However, should USPS discontinue service, this will become an issue as well. Again, the best place to make a contribution is online at myrotary.org/donate.
Please help me by sharing this information with any club and district leaders that you are currently working with. One of the best things that we can do now is simply to keep our folks as informed as possible and let them know that we are here to assist.

Should you have any questions about any of this information, please let me know. And most importantly, please continue to take care of yourselves and stay well!

Best wishes,

Elizabeth