Hard to believe we have reached a new year, but here we are! Welcome 2026 and let’s look forward to another great year in Rotary and our work with the Foundation.

There was some great news that came out of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation earlier in December that you may have missed in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of the Thanksgiving to the Christmas and Hanukkah holidays. The Gates Foundation has pledged $1.2 billion dollars for 2026-2029 to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) dedicated to vaccinating 370 million children annually as well as focusing on disease tracking and surveillance and working to beef up the healthcare systems in the endemic countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The announcement of this initiative came on December 8 during a summit being held in Abu Dhabi.

The $1.2 billion was part of a $1.9 billion collective pledge that included $450 million from Rotary International and an additional $100 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies. It is amazing what can be raised when great organizations collaborate. Though Polio cases have dropped by 99% since 1988, still there have been outbreaks over that time in 20 different countries around the globe which requires making mandatory a sustained on-going investment if we are to achieve full eradication of the disease. Once we do achieve full eradication, and we will, it will be the second human disease to achieve that status, second only to smallpox. We’ll get there with your dedicated support within Rotary. We are very blessed and thankful to the Gates Foundation for their continued support to stop the spread of Polio and support of the Rotary Foundation.

Let me shift gears to another topic for the rest of my article this month. There is an outstanding article written by Carl W. Davis, who is a Senior Major Gifts Officer with The Rotary Foundation. We’ve made that easy for you to view the entire article, thanks to the efforts of PDG Alex Smythe who placed the article on our district website. Carl discusses the “Big Beautiful Bill Act” that has been all the rage in Washington since its passage this past summer. Much of the article focuses on planning which he was encouraging us to consider as 2025 was coming to a close. He points out the large impact the Bill will have on Charitable Giving. His concern is with the fact that the amount of the new standard deduction will now be permanent and will make it more difficult to file an itemized return for most people. In response he recommended using Rotary’s Donor Advised Fund (DAF) that allows the Donor to receive a tax receipt for a charitable gift in one year where the charity will receive the give in a different tax year.

Carl points out that starting in 2026 everyone is eligible to give dollars to charity to minimize their tax bill even if they don’t itemize. He states that single-filers can do so for up to $1,000 and joint-filers up to $2,000 per year. This is a good way to keep marching up the Paul Harris giving ladder and can easily place the donor in the Paul Harris Society. No better time to look at doing so than now.

There are many other points Carl makes and I highly encourage you to read the entire article and study it for yourself and, as he suggests, doing so by consulting your own personal tax advisor is always the best approach. Don’t take my word for it as I’m certainly not a Tax adviser and don’t pretend to be. Still, there are good potential approaches for us all to consider as we support our Foundation. Let’s end the year with a big Rotary big! Look at the good we do in the world. By clicking this link, you will find Carl’s article and read it in its entirety. https://rotary6900.org/story/10555

If I can personally assist you in any way, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me via cell or email. I’m here to help and together we will….Unite for good!