Community Service Committee

Senior Director
Bob Ciapponi

At the first Rotary Board Meeting of 2005/06, the Board of Directors established the Santa Cruz Rotary Community Fund. It was formed with an initial investment of $50,000 from the general fund of the Rotary operating budget. Proceeds from all fundraisers are deposited with the Community Fund and disbursed to local nonprofit organizations who apply for our help.

Our first objective is to make local charitable donations from this Community Fund. The overall goal is to build the Community Fund reserves so we don't have to rely upon new sources of funding each year. Building the corpus enables the Fund to continue donating to worthwhile local projects and to supplement ongoing fundraising activities.

Our second objective is to ensure that all contributions to the Fund are treated as I.R.S. approved charitable donations. The Santa Cruz Rotary Community Fund 501(c3) was approved by the state of California as a nonprofit corporation. Rotarian Larry Brenner, Attorney at Law, provided legal services at no cost.