What is DDF?

DDF stands for District Designated Funds. The Rotary Foundation asks its member districts to "designate" how some funds will be used to accomplish Rotary goals and aims around the world.

Rotarians get huge ROI on their contributions to The Rotary Foundation. TRF invests the annual contributions from its members, and uses the earnings from those investments to operate the Foundation and its programs for three years. At that point, TRF "returns" approximately 50% of the money contributed by each member district and allows district leaders to "designate" how that money should be used.

Rotary districts and their member clubs advise The Rotary Foundation which service projects they wish to support with their DDF. The annual DDF "share" is directly related to level of district and club contributions three year earlier.

DDF can be used to support an international service project, Rotary scholarship, or special activity such as the Polio Plus campaign. In most districts, officers decide how to allocate their annual share of DDF, often using this money to "match" club contributions toward international service projects.

In District 6940, we use the "revenue sharing" DDF plan, where each club may "designate" how its share of the annual DDF allocation is used to support a Rotary project. The club's share of DDF is proportional to its previous annual contributions. Clubs may join together in support of a service project and get more leverage from their individual DDF shares.

Many Rotary districts, including 6940, allocate a portion of DDF for District Simplified Grants(DSG). DSG is a district-directed program that provides grants to member clubs to support service projects in their local community, region, and sometimes at international sites. DSG projects are smaller and less complex than TRF-MGs, and grants are modest.