--- A Newsletter to Rotarians Interested in Matching Grants with The Rotary Foundation ---

June 9, 2010
Issue #5

PDG Philippe Lamoise This communication is long overdue. I would have liked to send these newsletters more frequently, but I spent most of my time developing new features, and I could not make any official announcements until the work was ready to be released. This is obviously linked to the changes coming because of the Future Vision Pilot Program. My own district is a Pilot District, so I had to adjust the website to the new program.

I am pleased to announce that the Pilot Districts will soon be able to use an "upgraded" version of the Matching Grants Website, as explained below. But the Non-Pilot Districts should not worry, the existing version of the website will stay up and running until all the districts switch to the new system.

Breakout Session in Montréal
First of all, there will be a Matching Grants Website Breakout Session at the RI Convention in Montréal, like we had in Los Angeles and Birmingham. This session will be on Wednesday 23 June, 13:45-15:15. Check out the official program for more information. Unfortunately, it looks like there will be a session on Future Vision at the exact same time, so some of you will have to make a choice. At my session, I will do a demonstration of the new features of the website, and leave plenty of time for Questions and Answers.

The Big Split Between Pilot and Non-Pilot Districts
Most of you are aware of the changes coming up in the next 3 years because of the Future Vision Pilot Program. For the next 3 years, the Rotary World will be split between 100 Pilot Districts, and 430 Non-Pilot Districts. Non-Pilots will keep doing Matching Grants as before, and Pilots will be doing Global Grants. There is not much difference between the two programs, but Pilots will only be able to do such projects with other Pilots, and Non-Pilots only with Non-Pilots. In other words, if you are a Pilot District, you cannot participate in a Matching Grant with a Non-Pilot, therefore you are only interested in projects in Pilot Districts (and vice-versa). Global grants have a larger award amount, and will fall under at least one of the six areas of focus. Additionally, global grant projects will be designed to be sustainable so that a community can still benefit from the project even after all grant funds have been expended. More information about the pilot can be found on the rotary website here: Future Vision Pilot

As a consequence the list of projects on the Matching Grants Website will be split into 2 lists, one for projects hosted by Pilot Districts, and one for Projects hosted by Non-Pilot Districts. Being a Pilot or Non-Pilot project depends on the location of the host club. This process will take place during the next few weeks.

Information for Non-Pilot Districts
Non-Pilot Districts will keep using the same website with the same features. Current projects hosted by Pilot Districts will be moved to the new system, so you will only see in this list the projects from Non-Pilot Districts. Projects still looking for funding listed for the 2009-10 Rotary year will need to be "carried over" to the 2010-11 year. This is done by the click of a button on the administration page. You will receive an email with instructions if one of your projects need to be carried over.

If you are in a Non-Pilot District and you currently have some projects on the Matching Grants website with contributions from Pilot Districts, you will have to remove these contributions, since you would not be able to send your Matching Grant application to The Rotary Foundation with mixed participation from Pilots and Non-Pilots. I will try to develop some notification tools to track these projects.

Information for Pilot Districts
Pilot Districts will benefit from a brand new system that I have been working on. The address of the new list for Pilot Districts will be announced as soon as the transfer of projects is finished. This new system has been "beta-tested" in my district for the last couple of months. The concept stays the same, but the layout has been improved (with the use of "tabs" on a project page), and the features have been improved (better searches and reports, upload of additional custom documents, etc.). Another major difference is the login procedure. On the old website, you had a password for each project. Now you will have a password for each user. You will login with your email address and password, and the system will display the sub-list of your own projects.

If you are in a Pilot District and you currently have some projects on the Matching Grants website still looking for funding, these projects will be automatically transferred to the new list. Your project page will have a new web address and a new project number, but the old address will provide a link to the new page, so people will still be able to find your project if you gave them the old address. When the project is transferred to the new website, some accounts will be created for the project partners, and a notification email will be sent to you with the password to access the new website. Projects that have already been approved by The Rotary Foundation will stay where they are on the old list.

Collaboration with The Rotary Foundation
I am also pleased to announce that I will be working with the Information Technology staff at The Rotary Foundation to implement some automatic submission features for the Global Grants. This is for the submission of Proposals to the Member Access Portal of the Rotary International website. The goal is to capture the Proposal information on my website, and send this to The Rotary Foundation by the click of a button when it is ready. It will take some time to develop these new features, so this will not be fully functional until the end of the year. But this should not stop you from using the website already.

Another Website for District Grants and District Simplified Grants
In addition to the new Global Grants Website, I have been working on a website for District Grants. I have been asked many times if my website could be used for other projects, that don't qualify for Matching Grants because they are too small, or not eligible. This is my answer to this request. I am developing another section of the website, without the process and matching rules specific to Matching Grants and Global Grants. This website is designed to be used for District Grants (Pilot Districts) or District Simplified Grants (Non-Pilot Districts), and has been "beta-tested" in my district for the last couple of months. This website includes an electronic signature feature. Originally designed for my district, I have tried to keep it generic enough so that it could be used by other districts. This website will also be released in a few weeks.

Thanks you all for using the Matching Grants Website. I will do my best to keep adding features and make it a useful tool for all of you.

PDG Philippe Lamoise

Rotary Matching Grants Website - www.MatchingGrants.org

Go to www.MatchingGrants.org/newsletters.html to consult the archived issues of this newsletter.