The topic for our assembly is ” Where is the Bang for our Buck” or “What are the current major community issues facing Tucson that our charitable dollars could best be used to improve?”
Arnie Jacobsen, Past Club President and Chair of our RCT Foundation Strategic Planning Committee, will provide oversight to the Club Assembly and introduce Clint Mabie, President and CEO of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona. The program will provide background on “Making Action Possible (MAP)”, and demonstrate how it can be used to evaluate our community's needs related to areas where our club can have the greatest impact. At the end of the meeting, members will be selecting one issue area that we should support in the future.
Biography - J. Clinton Mabie
J. Clinton Mabie joined the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona as President and CEO in May of 2010. Mr. Mabie started his career in the nonprofit sector in 1992 after jobs in advertising and commercial real estate. During his nonprofit career, he served as Director of Development of The Golden Apple Foundation, founder of the Center of Teaching and Learning which teaches educators how to incorporate technology into the classroom, and was a high school teacher in the Chicago Public Schools. Most recently, Clint served as Director of Donor Services and Program Development at the Chicago Community Trust. During his tenure, donations increased from $15 million to $90 million annually and grants from donors increased from $1 million to over $45 million annually. Clint also created the Trust’s Poverty Initiative, Return on Chicago and raised over $20 million in funding.
Mr. Mabie received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio Wesleyan University, a Master of Management from J.L Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a Master of Arts in Teaching from National-Louis University.
Clint currently serves as a board member of the Tucson Values Teachers, and Arizona Grantmakers Association, and is a member of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council and Tucson Regional Economic Organization. He has served on nonprofit boards for over 20 years including, The Community Mental Health Council, National-Louis University and the Chicago District Golf Association. Clint is married to Debi and has three children, Chess, Clark and Martha.
Congresswoman Martha McSally joined us today, and helped open the meeting by leading us in pledge and song. Unlike many of us Rotarians, Congresswoman McSally has a pretty good singing voice and, unlike me, she wasn’t shy about singing in the microphone. Nice job with the song!
LONNIE LISTER did a great job introducing visitors and guests. We had a short visitor list of one, but quite a long list of guests for this meeting. We had four Rotarians celebrate their birthday at this week’s meeting. PETER BEAHAN is celebrating his 17th year as a Rotarian as a member at three different clubs. GARY HIRSCH informed us he is turning 65, and asked that we all continue to make that payroll deduction for Medicare! DARRELL STEWART suggested a new nickname for PRESIDENT PHIL, “PP” for short. (Not sure PRESIDENT PHIL shares DARRELL’S interest in this as a nickname!) And finally, JIM LUBINSKI shared his birthday greeting with us. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all of you!
ERNIE MINCHELLA introduced our newest member, CHOM HUBER. CHOM is looking forward to her involvement in Tucson Rotary, and is especially looking forward to giving her time and support to local charities!
For our program today, Congresswoman McSally shared her thoughts regarding her first six months in Congress. From my personal perspective, it was interesting hearing directly from a freshman Congressional member. I especially appreciate her focus on the A-10 and maintaining a squadron here at Davis-Monthan. It seems to me that the Tucson area needs the continued support of all our Congressional leaders to ensure we don’t lose a significant portion of our economy.
I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July Holiday weekend. Enjoy the fireworks wherever you spend this special day in our history!
You Have Built a Significant Asset for the Community
Unless you just joined our club in the very recent past, you have heard about the Rotary Club of Tucson Foundation (RCOTF). This IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) organization, formed decades ago, is a entity separate from - but closely related to - the Rotary Club of Tucson. Our club formed RCOTF to enable us to receive individual donations that qualify for deductibility on income tax returns (when the filer itemizes deductions and meets minimal conditions).
Over the years, our foundation has distributed millions of dollars toward making the world a better place in which to live. The assets our foundation holds have come from your generous donations, from your hard work at events such as the Tucson Classics Car Show, from carefully-considered investing, and from non-members who support the types of causes we find deserving.
Is ours the largest foundation of its type in greater Tucson? No, but it is certainly among the larger ones. More noteworthy is the breadth of the support RCOTF provides. While many local foundations are narrow in terms of the causes they support; our foundation has supported programs from reading improvement to healthcare (birth through the end-stages of life), from job skills to higher-education scholarships, from peace initiatives to temporary indigent assistance, and so very much more.
There is only a small number of foundations in our community that address needs across such a wide array of society.
RCOTF maintains, as I believe it should, a corpus of investments that generate earnings every year. Simultaneously distributing foundation income while maintaining that corpus, we ensure multi-year funding for appropriate recipients. And we can be confident our foundation will survive periods of severe economic downturn, as we experienced not all that long ago.
A major review of the types of programs RCOTF supports is being undertaken. The club membership, directly and through its representatives on the foundation Board, will make determinations of the sorts of programs we will be supporting.
Who are the people involved with the operation of our foundation? They are all members of the Rotary Club of Tucson. There are several financial professionals and non-profit leaders who have expertise in giving. And there are hundreds of combined years of club membership to guide the programs of support that you have indicated are a priority. Any club member can have significant input in deciding where our funds go via participation on the foundation’s Grants Committee.
It was a landmark day when the Rotary Club of Tucson established its foundation. You can, and should, be proud of the results.
The topic for our assembly is ” Where is the Bang for our Buck” or “What are the current major community issues facing Tucson that our charitable dollars could best be used to improve?”
ERNIE MINCHELLA introduced our newest member, CHOM HUBER. CHOM is looking forward to her involvement in Tucson Rotary, and is especially looking forward to giving her time and support to local charities!
freshman Congressional member. I especially appreciate her focus on the A-10 and maintaining a squadron here at Davis-Monthan. It seems to me that the Tucson area needs the continued support of all our Congressional leaders to ensure we don’t lose a significant portion of our economy.
