Rotary at-a-glance
 
Rotary brings together a global network of volunteers who dedicate their time and talent to tackle the world's most pressing humanitarian challenges. Rotary connects 1.2 million members from more than 200 countries and geographical areas. Their work impacts lives at both the local and international levels, from helping families in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world.
 

Membership Snapshot

Who: Rotary brings together the kind of people who step forward to take on important issues for local communities worldwide. Rotary members hail from a range of professional backgrounds; doctors, artists, small business owners and executives all call themselves Rotarians. Rotary connects these unique perspectives, and helps leverage its members' expertise to improve lives everywhere.
 
Where: From Haiti and Greenland to Nigeria and Singapore, Rotary unites a truly diverse set of leaders from across the world. Currently, the largest number of clubs comes from the United States, India, Japan and Brazil. The fastest growing Rotary regions include Southeast Asia and Africa.
 
What: Rotarians contribute their time, energy and passion to sustainable, long-term projects in local communities across the globe. Projects focus on important issues like peace and conflict resolution, disease prevention and treatment, water and sanitation, maternal and child health, basic education and literacy and economic and community development.
 

The Rotary Foundation: The Rotary Foundation transforms donations from Rotarians and other friends of Rotary into service projects that change lives both close to home and around the world. Our 35,000 clubs carry out sustainable service projects that support our six causes. With donations like yours, we’ve wiped out 99.9 percent of all polio cases. Your donation also trains future peacemakers, supports clean water, and strengthens local economies. During the past 100 years, the Foundation has spent $3 billion on life-changing, sustainable projects. More than 90 percent of donations go directly to supporting our service projects around the world.

Learn more about the Rotary Foundation

Polio Eradication: Rotary is close to eliminating the second human disease in history after smallpox, with a 99.9 percent reduction in polio cases worldwide since 1985, when Rotary launched its PolioPlus program. In 1988, Rotary spearheaded the creation of the Global PolioEradication Initiative with the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Polio eradication remains Rotary's top priority. To date, through their gifts to The Rotary Foundation, Rotarians have contributed more than $1.5 billion and countless volunteer hours to help immunize more than two billion children against polio in 122 countries. Rotary is now working to raise $35 million per year through 2018 for polio eradication, which will be matched 2 to 1by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.