The Okotoks Rotary Club is celebrating their 30th anniversary in town with a new initiative to support local community groups.

The local club, which has 30 members, is launching its first ever Angel Investor Pitch Night, which will see selected groups share in $20,000.00 worth of funding.

Okotoks Rotary Club President Steven Eddy says they regularly hear from community groups seeking support for worthy causes, and they hope that this initiative will encourage many others to come forward.

"We know that there is more out there that we're not hearing from that also are deserving of some kind of recognition and a little financial help," he says. "And we thought this would be a really good opportunity to get a whole lot of them together, making brief pitches. It shines a light on these organizations and it gives us an opportunity to spread the help around."

The Okotoks Rotary Club Angel Investor Pitch Night works like this: Applicants from local organizations submit a written proposal, no longer than 250 words, outlining their mandate and how much money they're seeking, up to a maximum of $2,000.00. The deadline for written applications is February 21st.

From those initial proposals, Eddy says the Rotary Club will choose 15 deserving groups. Those selected will be invited to the Rotary Club's meeting on March 28, where they'll be asked to do a three minute presentation on their organization. Rotary Club members will then make the decision on how the funds will be distributed.

"We're looking for organizations that are working in the community, for the community and that have a financial need," he explains. "And I think that pretty much describes any organization; charitable groups, arts groups, student groups, sports groups. It covers a wide variety of organizations."

He says, depending on how this first effort goes, they'll consider making the Angel Investor Pitch Night an annual event, and possibly see it expand in future years.

Community groups can email written proposals to dandkfee@gmail.com.

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