Posted by John Ester on Aug 14, 2018
Marsha Smith served as Executive Director of Rotary Charities of Traverse City from 1997 until stepping down recently with retirement pending in January of 2019.
 
 
Rotary Charities was started by the Traverse City noon club after the Club literally struck oil on 500 acres of land acquired for a Boy Scout camp. Since then Rotary Charities has donated more than $56 million to 1,232 community organizations, schools, libraries and local governments in a five-county area. The focus in the early years was on brick and mortar, making investments helping organizations become more effective.
 
Finding that the problems it was addressing were both complex and inter-connected, Rotary Charities in 2016 made a critical decision to move from traditional philanthropy to become a change-making organization. Rather than looking for immediate results this approach takes a longer view, aspiring to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. The Mission of Rotary Charities is to use its resources and connections to help create a fair and thriving community.