Rotary IT Fellowship
The Quantum Accelerator
Approved in one round,
not three.
We stay with your Global Grant from first idea to final report. Most projects don’t fail — they stall, and each round of revisions costs another two or three months. We find those faults before you submit, help you find the partner who funds it, and stay on afterwards to watch the deadlines that quietly kill funded grants.
Free to every club, because we are Rotarians — this is our service project, not a business. No fee, no account, no catch. We are IT professionals who volunteer the systems side of grant work.
Every global grant needs both sponsors. Minimum project budget US$30,000.
Where the time actually goes
The revision cycle is the enemy
Ask a club what took so long and they will blame the Foundation. But the Foundation reviews a complete application in about four weeks — that is the fastest link in the chain. The months disappear into rounds of revision, and into waiting for the other sponsor to reply.
What we cut
Rounds. We hold your application against forty encoded rules until it is genuinely complete, run the tasks clubs run one after another in parallel instead, and time your submission to the review calendars — because missing a Trustees date by a week costs a quarter.
What we cannot cut
A community assessment needs people talking to people. A district’s funding committee meets when it meets. We design the instruments and time the asks around those calendars — we do not pretend the clock isn’t there.
The whole arc
We stay for all of it
Drafting is about five percent of a Global Grant timeline. Concept to funded runs twelve to eighteen months; implementation and reporting runs longer still. Writing the application is the part most clubs think they need help with, and the part that matters least.
Funding mechanics
What the Foundation actually matches
Move the slider. Many district websites still publish figures abolished years ago — a US$15,000 minimum World Fund award, a 100% DDF match, a 50% cash match. All three are gone. These are the current rules.
The rules behind the numbers
- US$30,000 minimum project budget; US$400,000 maximum World Fund award.
- DDF draws an 80% World Fund match. Cash draws nothing — that match ended 1 July 2020.
- Cash sent to the Foundation carries a 5% processing charge on top.
- Contingency, administration and outcome measurement are each capped at 10% of budget.
- At least 15% of contributions to a humanitarian project must originate outside the project country.
- Applications sit at one of three review levels. Level 1 — World Fund up to US$50,000. Level 2 — US$50,001–200,000, or total funding US$100,001–400,000 involving a directed gift or endowed fund: adds an interim Cadre site visit. Level 3 — US$200,001–400,000, or total funding above US$400,000 on the same basis: adds Trustees review, an advance site visit and an audit.
- Level 2 and 3 grants are paid in installments against a spending plan. Later payments follow a satisfactory progress report and a Cadre site visit — so plan cash flow around that, not around one lump sum.
- Trustees review on a fixed calendar: received 1 March → reviewed June; 1 June → September or October; 1 October → January; 1 December → April.
- Grant financing cannot be changed after approval. Get the funding mix right before you submit.
| Source | Amount | Match |
|---|---|---|
| District Designated Funds | 55,000 | 44,000 |
| Cash contributions | 45,000 | none since 2020 |
| Total financing available | 144,000 |
Seven areas of strategic impact
Where projects qualify — and where they quietly die
Every area of focus carries its own list of ineligible activities, and that list is where most otherwise-good applications are lost. Drag the ring or pick an area. Each card shows the mission, a project shape that works, and the specific trap.
Synthetic Grant Officer · live
Check your concept before you write a word
Fourteen of the hardest rules, running in your browser. Nothing is transmitted, stored or logged — this widget makes no network calls. Answer honestly; a blocker found here costs you an afternoon, and the same blocker found by a grants officer costs you a review cycle.
Stated plainly
What we will not do
The gap between what automation can do and what it should do is where trust lives. These are commitments, not caveats.
[GAP — baseline method not supplied] — and stays there. An application containing invented baseline figures is worse than no application at all.Forms and templates
Everything you have to fill in, in one place
Chasing a missing attachment is how a fortnight disappears. The intake form captures every field a Global Grant needs in one pass, and the five templates below are the attachments that trigger most revision rounds. Free, yours to keep, no account needed — use them with us or without us.
Project intake form start here
Nine steps, every field the Grant Center will ask for. Validates as you type, sends nothing to any server, and exports a JSON file plus a printable summary.
Community assessment toolkit DOCX
Survey instrument, focus-group guide, key-informant questions, asset inventory and the results form — plus a sampling plan that satisfies the two-stakeholder-group requirement. Its absence is a published denial reason.
Budget workbook XLSX
Live formulas for the 80% World Fund match, the 5% cash charge, and the 10% caps on contingency, administration and measurement. Flags the moment a cap is breached.
Cooperating organization MOU DOCX
All four elements the Foundation requires, in order, with signature blocks — including the clause verifying the grant is initiated, controlled and managed by Rotary members.
Monitoring & evaluation plan DOCX
Standard measures by area of focus, a baseline collection calendar, and the goal-to-measure linkage table reviewers look for.
Qualification & stewardship checklist DOCX
Club and district qualification, three-member committees, two bank signatories, receipt and retention rules, and every cancellation clock with a date field to diary.
Bring us a concept. We will stay to the final report.
Start the intake form, or send a voice note on WhatsApp if that is easier. No fee, no account, no obligation — and if your project belongs in a district grant instead, we will tell you that in the first ten minutes.