--- A Newsletter to Rotarians Interested in Matching Grants with The Rotary Foundation ---

January 12, 2008
Issue #1

Welcome!

Welcome to the initial edition of the Matching Grants Website Newsletter featuring information and tips about the Matching Grants Website. You are receiving this issue because you have been involved with a project listed on our website. If you do not want to receive this newsletter, please use the link at the bottom to be removed from our distribution list.

QuickTips
This website is a "self-learning" experience. Most of the features are very intuitive to use, but there might be some features you are not aware of. The issues of this newsletter will include a series of "QuickTips" to explain the various features of the website. These entries will be archived on the QuickTips page of the website, slowly buiding an online reference guide for the use of the website. Don't hesitate to send me suggestions for future QuickTips.

History and Achievements
The Matching Grants Website was created in 2001 when I returned from a GSE trip to District 9200, East Africa. I had to find a way to publish all the projects we collected over there! Over the years I kept adding some features to the website, I traveled to other Districts worldwide to collect projects and promote the website, and today we are getting over 5,000 hits per day. Since 2001, we had over 800 projects that have been listed on the website, with over 150 projects currently approved or completed. We received the support of many prominent Rotarians worldwide, including PRIP Frank Devlyn. Have a look at our Testimonies page.

PDG Philippe Lamoise
2006-07, District 5340

QuickTip #1: Updating Your Projects

From your project page you can click on the "Administration" button on the left, under the navigation menu. This will being you to your project Administration Page. If you are asked for a password, see QuickTip #2 below. There is also a direct link to the Administration Page at the bottom of all the notification emails you receive from the website.

On the top right of the Administration page you can click on the "Edit Project Page" button to make changes to your project page. You can make changes to the Project Description, to the contact information for the Primary Host Partner or the Primary International Partner, and to the Proposed Financing. At the bottom of the "Proposed Financing" section you can add some contributions from clubs or districts (one at a time). If you add contributions this way instead of using the "Pledge Support to this Project" button, the contributions are added without sending a notification email, and without adding a history log entry. To remove a club contribution, just change the corresponding amount to zero.

Click the "Save" button once you have made the changes, and your project page will be updated accordingly. Note that you might have to "Refresh" the project page on your web browser to see the changes, as an old version of the page might be cached into your computer memory.

QuickTip #2: Project Passwords

Some of the project information is protected with a password: the Administration Page, the Online Application Form, but also the supporting PDF documents other than "Detailed Information", and "Budget Information". This is because these pages and documents contain some private contact information that should not be released to the general public. Each project has a different password, and all the project partners can have access to the passwords for their own projects.

When trying to access a password-protected page or document you might be redirected to a Login Page asking for the password. If you know the password, just type it in and click the "Login" button, this will give you access to the page or document.

If you don't know the password you can request to have it sent to you by email provided your email address is listed as one of the project participants. To receive the password by email, select your email address in the "Forgot Password?" section of the Login Page, and click "Send Password". If your email address is not listed in there and you believe you should have access to this project, you need to ask one of the project partners to add you to the list of participants for this project.

There is also a special link at the bottom of each notification email sent about a project, this link will give you direct access to the Administration Page without having to type in a password. Once you have accessed the administration page for a given project, your computer will remember that you have access to this specific project and you will not have to type the password for this project on this specific computer (unless you wait for a long period of time without accessing the project administration page). You will have to type the password however if you use a different computer.

Featured Project: D-893, Workshops for HIV/AIDS Patients in Brazil

D-893

HIV/AIDS Workshops

Brazil

$18,830

Need $10,454

This project will support HIV/AIDS patients in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. This project was published by Marieta Nobile, a 2006-07 Ambassadorial Scholar from Brazil to District 5340 (San Diego, CA). Marieta has been a role model for the Ambassadorial Scholars program of The Rotary Foundation. She was selected from the Scholarship Pool Fund for Low Income Countries, with an entire scholarhip paid by District 5340 DDF. She did a Master at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. Although she is not technically a "Peace Scholar" from The Rotary Foundation, she certainely studied in a field that is very dear to Rotarians. She has been very active with Rotary programs while in San Diego, and came up with this project after she came back to Brazil. The Matching Grants Website is pledging $2,000 if its own DAF funds to support this project. We are looking for additional donors to partner with this project. Please click the Pledge Support for this Project button on the project page if you are interested.

Recently Approved Projects

The following projects listed on the Matching Grants Website have recently been approved by The Rotary Foundation. Additional information and photos can be added to the project pages at any time. Check out project D-702, with a Detailed Information PDF document with photos of the donated vehicle.

#	Title	Country	Amount	Status
D-942	Mechanical Cows	Ecuador	$36,000	Approved
D-915	Make Blindness History 1	India	$24,800	Approved
D-885	Cataract Operation	Philippines	$36,100	Approved
D-865	Nangarhar University	Afghanistan	$95,000	Approved
D-864	Blankets and Shoes	Mexico	$47,340	Approved
D-827	School Equipment	India	$19,750	Approved
D-819	Physiotherapy Center	Dominican Republic	$13,386	Approved
D-818	National Spinal Injury Hosp.	Kenya	$17,150	Approved
D-816	Missionary School Van	Mexico	$30,275	Approved
D-813	Children Desks	Mexico	$21,481	Approved
D-807	Asphalt and Benches	USA	$20,620	Approved
D-789	Training Center Equipment	El Salvador	$12,300	Approved
D-746	Uganda Pigs	Uganda	$25,000	Approved
D-702	Missionvale Transport Vehicle	South Africa	$37,583	Approved
D-635	Generator for Hospital/School	Malawi	$45,695	Approved
D-562	Safe Drinking Water	India	$10,834	Approved

16 projects, $493,314 total budget