Top tips for speaking to Rotarians

Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland

Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland, or RIBI for short, is the body which administers Rotary clubs within England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Great Britain and Ireland are broken down into 29 districts. Rotary districts represent clubs within a certain area. Clubs meet regularly and on average have 20-40 members.

Clubs, districts, RIBI and Rotary International have post holders who manage certain areas, so there will be treasurers, secretaries, club Presidents, District Governors etc. WaterAid is most often in contact with the person who holds the post of International Service Chairman at district and club level.

WaterAid's relationship with Rotary International

WaterAid has enjoyed a successful relationship with Rotary since 1984 and currently has the kind support of over 1,200 Clubs across Great Britain and Ireland.

WaterAid has been nominated RIBI president's preferred charity in both 1993/4 and 2002/03. In 1993, WaterAid established a link to ensure that all RIBI donations go to support specific protects in the Dodoma region of Tanzania – giving Rotarians a clear focus for their fundraising activities. 

The RIBI link to projects in Tanzania is still in place and in 2007/08 over £145,000 was kindly donated towards this programme  - benefiting an estimated 9,500 of the world's poorest people.

WaterAid keeps in contact with all Rotarians in RIBI through regular speaking engagements and several newsletters each year. For further information on Rotary please visit the RIBI website (opens in a new window), the Rotary pages of our website, or email community@wateraid.org.

Speaking to Clubs

Clubs are requesting speakers for their weekly meetings more and more as a consequence of the long-standing relationship. This is generally an invitation for lunch or dinner and then a chance to speak to the Club members about WaterAid and for them to ask questions.

Likely questions

Can our club's name go on the well?

No. WaterAid's work is sustainable purely because the community owns the water and sanitation facilities. Putting a name on a well can be detrimental to this process. All project facilities that WaterAid helps to implement are owned by the community that benefits not WaterAid or WaterAid supporters.

Can our club receive matching donations for any donations we make?

Rotary Clubs are familiar with the concept of matching as the charitable wing of Rotary International - Rotary Foundation - which generously funds educational and humanitarian projects around the world. The foundation runs a scheme whereby the fund matches the donation of a club if it is to a project that the foundation approves of.

WaterAid projects are rarely approved for matching grants because we are unable to meet certain criteria:

• It is specified that the project can only begin once the funding has been approved by the foundation. This approval (if successful) can take many, many months which seriously holds back the work in Africa or Asia.
• The provision of pro-forma invoices. Much of WaterAid's project materials and labour comes from the surrounding area such as sand for mixing cement, locally collected wood and stones. Materials such as these as well as locally purchased materials never come with pro-forma invoices.
• A local club overseeing the project. WaterAid is rarely in contact with Rotary cubs in the areas where we work and often the nearest clubs can be hundreds of miles from the project site. Unfortunately WaterAid does not have the resources to find an overseeing club to report back on the outputs of the project.
• It is specified that the Rotary emblem should appear on the new facilities - the answer to which is outlined above.

On balance and due to the administratively heavy nature of applying, monitoring and feeding back on a matching grant WaterAid does discourage against matching grants on our behalf. We very much appreciate the intention and goodwill in this gesture but must evaluate the cost involved, both in country and the UK, in administration for the application. Due to its current success rate WaterAid believes that this is not the best way to spend its resources.

We have provided Aquaboxes before, why do you want more money?

Aquabox is a scheme run by the Rotary Club of Wirksworth in Derbyshire who run a scheme whereby clubs can buy a box which will contain equipment which is vital in an emergency situation including water filtration equipment. This is not a WaterAid project. Aquaboxes is a great scheme for emergency situations. WaterAid works in a different way in which our aim is to provide long term, sustainable water and sanitation facilities for poor communities.

WaterAid is fortunate enough to benefit from the long standing and very generous support of the Rotary Club of Wirksworth as recipients of financial donations for our work overseas.

If the Club that you are speaking to would like to contribute to an Aquabox, please refer them to the Rotary Club of Wirksworth.

The points below have been collated from the experiences of speakers and from Rotarians themselves to help you prepare for speaking to this group of WaterAid supporters.

Top tips for speaking to Rotarians

• Most Rotarians are business men and women, and they like to know how their money is being spent. WaterAid projects are very good value for money as the beneficiaries provide much of the labour and, in many cases, some of the materials too.
  
• Rotary club donations are directly linked to WaterAid's Tanzania country programme.
  
• WaterAid projects aim to help people to help themselves by involving them at all stages - from planning to completion. A sense of ownership is developed, which helps ensure the long-term sustainability of the project.
  
• WaterAid is held in high regard by other reputable national and international organisations.
  
• WaterAid is concerned that water projects are carried out in the most efficient and cost-effective way, irrespective of who carries out the work. WaterAid is always happy to provide advice and contacts with other bodies through our engineering advisors.
  
• There is a strong relationship between water and literacy. Rotary International has knowledge of these two subjects, but many people do not realise the vital part that water can play in improving literacy. See our publication, The Education Drain, for more information.
  
• There are three newsletters that are sent to Rotarians annually, explaining how their donations to WaterAid are being spent.
  
• Rotarians are generally very knowledgeable about WaterAid.
  
• Questions may be quite technical but do not worry too much if you cannot answer them. Take a note of the question and the questioner, and tell them you will get back to them. You can check the How we work section or email us. It is also worth opening up the question to the group as someone in the audience may know the answer!