About Rotary - What Is Rotary?

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Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. In more than 160 countries worldwide, approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 30,000 Rotary clubs.

Rotary club membership represents a cross-section of the community's business and professional men and women. The world's Rotary clubs meet weekly and are nonpolitical, nonreligious, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds.

The main objective of Rotary is service — in the community, in the workplace, and throughout the world. Rotarians develop community service projects that address many of today's most critical issues, such as children at risk, poverty and hunger, the environment, illiteracy, and violence. They also support programs for youth, educational opportunities and international exchanges for students, teachers, and other professionals, and vocational and career development. The Rotary motto is Service Above Self.

Although Rotary clubs develop autonomous service programs, all Rotarians worldwide are united in a campaign for the global eradication of polio. In the 1980s, Rotarians raised US$240 million to immunize the children of the world; by 2005, Rotary's centenary year and the target date for the certification of a polio-free world, the PolioPlus program will have contributed US$500 million to this cause. In addition, Rotary has provided an army of volunteers to promote and assist at national immunization days in polio-endemic countries around the world.

Find out more about Rotary by visiting the Rotary International web site.

Download "Rotary Basics" the annual publication of everything Rotary.

Established:
February 23, 1905, in Chicago, Ill., USA

Founder:
Chicago lawyer Paul P. Harris

Clubs:
33,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical regions

Membership:
1.2 million men and women

Polio:

In 1988, Rotary partnered with WHO, CDC, and UNICEF to launch the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Rotary membership gives men and women an opportunity to forge new friendships and share the rewards of helping others through volunteer service.

The Rotary club meeting is a chance for members to socialize, network, and plan service activities based on local needs and their own interests and talents. In addition, Rotary clubs often team up with clubs in other countries to carry out international service projects, enhancing members’ cross-cultural understanding. 

Rotary clubs are open to people of every race, culture, and creed. 

To learn more about the rewards of Rotary club membership, visit www.rotary.org or contact a Rotary club in your community.

Rotary: a global network of volunteers dedicated to world peace

Whether it’s drilling water wells for parched villages in Ethiopia, helping earthquake victims in China, or providing unprecedented educational opportunities for girls and young women in Afghanistan, Rotary clubs work at the grassroots level, both locally and internationally, to help people in need.

Rotary’s 1.2 million club members are women and men who are business, professional, and community leaders united by the motto Service Above Self. With 33,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas, Rotary promotes peace and understanding by addressing the underlying causes of conflict and violence, such as poverty, illiteracy, hunger, and disease. Rotary’s top goal as an organization is the global eradication of polio.

Rotary also takes a direct approach to world understanding with an innovative educational program that gives future leaders the tools they will need to “wage peace” on the global stage. Six of the Rotary Centers for International Studies offer two-year, master’s degree-level curricula aimed at helping the next generation of government officials, diplomats, and leaders develop the skills to reduce the threat of war and violence. Up to 60 Rotary World Peace Fellows are accepted yearly through a globally competitive selection process based on their professional and academic achievements. Grassroots Rotary members play an important role because fellowship candidates are sponsored by local clubs.

These six Rotary Centers are located on the campuses of International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan; Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires, Argentina; University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England; University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; University of California, Berkeley, Calif., U.S.A.; and — in a joint arrangement — Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, U.S.A.

The seventh Rotary Center, at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, offers a three-month program aimed at upper-level professionals in government, nongovernmental organizations, and international industry. The curriculum imparts the skills and knowledge that participants can put into practice immediately. The center accepts up to 25 fellows twice per year.

Since 1905, Rotary clubs have worked locally and internationally to make the world a better and more peaceful place — one person, one family, one community at a time.

For more about the rewards of Rotary club membership and the Rotary Centers program, visit www.rotary.org or contact a Rotary club in your community.

 
"Acting alone, an individual’s reach is limited, but when the right people work together, they can accomplish almost anything."

Rotary club members from Korea and Mongolia worked together to plant thousands of trees that will form a windbreak to help control the spread of deserts in Mongolia’s South Gobi region.

Information on this page came from:

The About Rotary and the RI Programs pages on the Rotary International web site