The Rotary Club of Birmingham Foundation

Letter from the RCB Foundation Chair

The RCB Foundation significantly improves the lives of many people, particularly in the greater Birmingham community. Through the generosity of RCB members and others, the RCB Foundation has, among other things:

• Awarded Jim Hughey Jr. Scholarships to Birmingham City School students to support their pursuit of college degrees at colleges and universities across the country by paying for tuition, textbooks, fees, and other expenses.

• Provided financial support enabling many children to attend high-quality Pre-K programs in Birmingham.

• Facilitated the teaching of peace-building skills to high school students in the metro area.

• Supplied funds and other resources to communities devastated by natural disasters. 

• Enabled a record number of women in Sri Lanka to be tested and treated for cervical cancer.

• Helped expand the reach of OPERATION WIPE OUT in its mission to eradicate cervical cancer in Alabama.

• Supported critical care transport of children from across the state to Children's of Alabama.

• Underwritten the cost of constructing and maintaining the Rotary Trail which, for nearly ten years, has been a high-quality asset in downtown Birmingham spurring economic development in the surrounding area. 

The generosity of our members and friends has made these good works and many others possible. And yet there is so much more we can do to improve our city, and that will require increasing the corpus and creativity of the RCB Foundation. We've only started to tap the potential of what we can collectively accomplish. RCB includes the finest leaders in our community, and Rotary International connects us with leaders worldwide. Together, we can make Birmingham a great place to live, raise families, create and operate successful businesses, enjoy world-class recreation and arts, and contribute to the quality of life for people throughout the world.

I ask you to generously support the RCB Foundation. Regular contributions to the RCB Foundation offer our members a modest and tax-deductible way to regularly participate in the service mission of the club. Your support allows the RCB Foundation to fund its ongoing commitments, such as those listed above, and to provide meaningful assistance to sudden and emerging needs, such as disaster relief. 

Also, please consider a gift or pledge above and beyond your current commitments. Additional donations enable us to consider new ways to improve our community and support RCB’s charitable work in perpetuity. We will prioritize building these endowed funds to help the RCB Foundation increase its ability to improve the lives of the people of Birmingham and beyond. Many of our members have already made substantial legacy gift commitments, and I encourage you to add the RCB Foundation to your estate plans.

Thank you for your support, and for putting service above self. 

In Rotary Friendship,
Clark Watson