So what is the bottom line? All of the resources of this amazing organization seem great but what is the actual cost in dollars to volunteer with CXR?
How does $25 a month sound? Before you answer, let me tell you what your $25 goes to and what you get.
Our Camelback Crossroads Satellite Club has some minor expenses. CXR is part of about 70 clubs in Arizona which make up Rotary District 5495. The monthly dues of $25 includes a portion that goes towards District 5495 administration expenses. Of course Rotary International also has some administration expenses of which the remaining portion of your monthly dues takes care of. When you ask around you'll find that other Rotary club's dues are higher than ours. A select few are lower but CXR's dues are pretty affordable. We did that intentionally. Frankly, we didn't want money to be a barrier to becoming a member so we set our dues to cover the bare essentials of being a Rotarian. Monthly dues cover club expenses, District expenses, and International expenses.
But what is important is what YOU get. We understand you could go to HandsOnGreaterPhoenix or Serve.org for free. So what is it about who we are and what we do that separates us and has you paying the "subscription" to Rotary? The answer is the difference of a power of one versus the power of many.
Who we are is an organization that does amazing things TOGETHER. Could you access a volunteer network to plant 100 trees in a single day in a park in Tempe? Could you tap into a group of people to give close to 1,500 suitcases and bags to Arizona children in foster care? Maybe you could. But I doubt you could provide water to Native Americans in Apache County, the United State's most food insecure county. For the first time, through the power of Rotary Global Grants, Rotarians in District 5495 were able to provide clean water to a community right in our own back yard. Tens of thousands of dollars were raised in a hurry-- better than any crowd funding website because our Rotary Foundation is rated number one on charitynavigator.org and our Foundation matched every single dollar raised in our grant effectively doubling the power of service we aimed to provide. Confidently, I can say no one else does that. I hope you're asking yourself what I asked myself when I was looking into Rotary, "I can do all that for only $25 a month?" What I've mentioned is only scratching the surface. The amount of lasting change you can make by becoming part of a powerfully collective group of people with a service mindset-- people of action-- is limitless because of the significant resources Rotary has placed within its organization at YOUR disposal.
The bottom line is about the cost of a gym membership. But the dividend you get as a return on your investment is priceless.