ABOUT ROTARY INTERNATIONAL
WHO WE ARE
Rotary is a global network of 1.2 million neighbors, friends, leaders, and problem-solvers who come together to make positive, lasting change in communities at home and abroad.
Solving real problems takes real commitment and vision. For more than 110 years, Rotary members have used their passion, energy, and intelligence to take action on sustainable projects. From literacy and peace to water and health, we are always working to better our world, and we stay committed to the end.
Our motto: Service Above Self
For more than 110 years, our guiding principles have been the foundation of our values: service, fellowship, diversity, integrity, and leadership.
What we do
Rotary members believe that we have a shared responsibility to take action on our world’s most persistent issues. Our 35,000+ clubs work together to:
- Promote peace
- Fight disease
- Provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene
- Save mothers and children
- Support education
- Grow local economies
For more than 110 years, Rotary members have been addressing challenges around the world.
Grassroots at the core, Rotary links 1.2 million members to form an organization of international scope. It started with the vision of one man — Paul Harris. The Chicago attorney formed the Rotary Club of Chicago on 23 February 1905, so professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas, form meaningful, lifelong friendships, and give back to their communities.
Rotary’s name came from the group’s early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of its members.
Truly International
We’re truly international. Only 16 years after being founded, Rotary had clubs on six continents. Today, members in nearly every country work to solve some of our world’s most challenging problems.
We persevere in tough times.
During World War II, Rotary clubs in Austria, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain were forced to disband. Despite the risks, many continued to meet informally, and after the war, Rotary members came together to rebuild their clubs and their countries.
Committed to service
We’re committed to service, and we’re not afraid to dream big and set bold goals. We began our fight against polio in 1979 with a project to immunize 6 million children in the Philippines. Today, polio remains endemic in only three countries — down from 125 in 1988.
Peace and conflict prevention/resolution
Disease prevention and treatment
Water and sanitation
Maternal and child health
Basic education and literacy
Economic and community development.
Stephanie Urchick
RI President, 2024/25RI PRESIDENT
Stephanie A. Urchick, of the Rotary Club of McMurray, Pennsylvania, USA, is the selection of the Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International for 2024-25, a decision that would make her only the second woman to hold that position. She will be declared the president-nominee on 15 September if no challenging candidates have been suggested.
With the world facing incredible challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, disasters driven by climate change, and conflict in many regions, Urchick says Rotary’s leaders can offer a vision and a plan for overcoming these challenges.
“Measures taken by Rotary leadership to survive and end critical challenges often make our organization stronger and more resilient for future events,” Urchick says. “This kind of essential leadership also creates new levels of cooperation, even among rivals, when Rotarians pull together as people of action to serve and solve a crisis.”
Making regionalization a priority is crucial, says Urchick.
“Because Rotary operates in more than 200 countries and regions, it is vital to recognize that the organization has the potential to become more efficient and effective by understanding and reacting to how regional differences affect the way Rotarians work together to address providing service, promoting integrity, and advancing world understanding, goodwill, and peace,” Urchick says.
Urchick is partner and chief operating officer of Doctors at Work LLC, a consulting and training company. She holds a doctorate in leadership studies from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She is active on numerous community boards and committees, and has been honored by organizations including Zonta International and the Sons of the American Revolution.
A Rotary member since 1991, Urchick has traveled to Vietnam to help build a primary school and to the Dominican Republic to install water filters. She studies several Slavic languages, has mentored new Rotarians in Ukraine, and coordinated a Rotary Foundation grant project in Poland.
Urchick has served Rotary in many roles, including as a director, Foundation trustee, and chair of the RI Strategic Planning Committee and the Foundation’s Centennial Celebration Committee. She currently serves on the Election Review Committee and the Operations Review Committee. She is a Rotary Foundation Major Donor and a member of the Bequest Society.