Gig Harbor Rotary Foundation gets a grant of $850,000 from wealthy brothers

The Gig Harbor Rotary Foundation has received an $850,000 donation from two wealthy brothers who wanted to give back to the community.

“We are very very excited,” said Scott Junge, president of the Rotary foundation. “Very happy. This will help us make our foundation grow.”

Dave and Tom Morris, two Gig Harbor real estate investors, manage a foundation created by their father, who owned Purdy Realty.

The paperwork for the donation from the Morris Family Foundation was signed on Nov. 1.

The Gig Harbor Rotary Foundation was created in 1985 and has given out over $1.25 million in college or vocational scholarships since.

This grant from the Morris Family Foundation will be primarily focused on capital projects rather than educational scholarships.

“The Morris Family Foundation knew we were strong supporters of the community,” Junge said. “They created a foundation that would invest in people and fund toward community projects.”

These capital projects are typically focused maintaining or improving the city’s infrastructure or land.

Dave Morris said the 25-year-old foundation has distributed over $1.5 million to various charities. The $850,00 given to Gig Harbor Rotary is the last bit of money left in their foundation.

“My brother and I are both in our 70s now,” Morris said. “We wanted to carry on this effort into the future. We interviewed a few entities we thought were capable of managing our funds and carrying on our name.”

Morris, who is an active member of the Gig Harbor Rotary, said the Rotary foundation was the clear and obvious choice.

“They serve mainly the Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula area, which is what we did,” Morris said. “They also have a historical pattern of working on capital-type projects, along with other things like scholarships.”

Morris said the $850,000 will be invested and the returns will be distributed in grants.

Morris has asked the Gig Harbor Rotary Foundation to allocate 20 percent of their earnings to the Harbor History Museum. The other 80 percent will go to various capital projects in the greater Gig Harbor area.

Junge said the Gig Harbor Rotrary has already done plenty of work with the Harbor History Museum, the YMCA and Saint Anthony’s hospital, so this request was right up their alley.

Junge hopes to give out close to $40,000 per year back to the community.

Looking ahead, Junge said he is very excited. He said this grant will allow the Rotary club to expand their reach to more than just education.

The Morris Family Foundation will be shut down in the coming months after giving away this last bit of money. Morris said he is confident they put their money in the right hands.

This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 12:00 AM.