The mission of Rotary International is to support its member clubs in fulfilling the object of Rotary by :

Dollars and some good financial sense are the reasons who Rotary Year starts on 1st July, at least that is what RI auditors said, according to 1912-13 RI President Glenn C Meads report in the September 1912-13 issue of The Rotarian.

Auditors found that the organisations affairs had been managed honestly and carefully., Still RI was growing and had recently become an International organization and its needs were changing.

The Secretary and Treasurer needed some more time to prepare, audit and check the organisations financial statements by the end of the calendar year. The auditors recommended that the organization close its financial books for the year on 30 June which was after the RI Convention. The Board of Directors agreed and ever since the Rotary Year has begun on 1 July.

The Portland convention also inspired the motto Service Above Self. During a convention outing on the Columbia River, Ben Collins, president of the Rotary Club of Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, talked with Seattle Rotarian J. E. Pinkham about the proper way to organize a Rotary Club, offering the principle his club had adopted: Service, Not Self. Pinkham invited Paul P. Harris, who also was on the boat trip, to join their conversation. Harris asked Collins to address the convention, and the phrase Service, Not Self was met with great enthusiasm.

At the 1950 RI Convention in Detroit, slightly modified versions of the two slogans were formally approved as the official mottoes of Rotary : He Profits Most Who Serves Best and Service Above Self. The 1989 Council on Legislation established Service Above Self as the principal motto of Rotary, because it best conveys the philosophy of unselfish volunteer service., He Profits Most Who Serves Best was modified by the 2004 Council to They Profit Most Who Serve Best and by the 2010 Council to its current wording. One Profits Most Who Serves Best.

The most notable current globe project, Polio Plus, is contributing to the global eradication of polio. Since beginning the project in 1985, Rotarians have contributed over US$ 850 million and tens of thousands of volunteer-hours, leading to the inoculation of more than two billion of the world's children. Inspired by Rotary's commitment, the World Health Organization (WHO) passed a resolution in 1988 to eradicate polio by 2000. Now a partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) with WHO, UNICEF and the US Centers, Rotary is recognized by the United Nations as the key private partner in the eradication effort.

In 1917, RI President Arch C. Klumph proposed that an endowment be set up “for the purpose of doing good in the world”. In 1928, when the endowment fund had grown to more than US $ 5,000. It was renamed The Rotary Foundation, and it became a distinct entity within Rotary International.

Five Trustees, including Klumph, were appointed to “hold, invest, manage and administer all of its property as a single trust, for the furtherance of the purposes of RI”.

Two years later, the Foundation made its first grant of $ 500 to the International Society for Crippled Children. The organization, created by Rotarian Edgar F. “Daddy” Allen, later grew into the Easter Seals.

The Great Depression and World War II both impeded the Foundation's growth, but the need for lasting world peace generated great postwar interest in its development. After Rotary's founder, Paul P. Harris, died in 1947, contributions began pouring into Rotary International, and the Paul Harris Memorial Fund was created to build the Foundation.

That year, the first Foundation program – the forerunner of Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarships – was established. In 1965-66, three new programs were launched : Group Study Exchange, Awards for Technical Training, and Grants for Activities in Keeping with the Objective of The Rotary Foundation, which was later called Matching Grants.

The Health, Hunger and Humanity (3-H) Grants program was launched in 1978, and Rotary Volunteers was created as a part of that program in 1980. Polio Plus was announced in 1984-85, and the next year brought Rotary Grants for University Teachers. The first peace forums were held in 1987-88, leading to the Foundation's peace and conflict studies programs.

Throughout this time, support of the Foundation grew tremendously. Since the first donation of $ 26.50 in 1917, it has received contributions totaling more than $ 1 billion. More than $ 70 million was donated in 2003-04 alone. To date, more than one million individuals have been recognized as Paul Harris Fellows – people who have given $ 1,000 to the Annual Programs Fund or have had that amount contributed in their name.

Such strong support, along with Rotarian involvement worldwide, ensures a secure future for The Rotary Foundation as it continues its vital work for international understanding and world peace.

Founder of Rotary International

The world's first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, was formed on 23 February 1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished to capture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The Rotary name derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.

Rotary's popularity spread, and within a decade, clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York to Winnipeg, Canada. By 1921, Rotary Clubs had been formed on six continents. The organization adopted the Rotary International name a year later.

As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving club members' professional and social interests. Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing their talents to help serve communities in need. The organization's dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its motto : Service Above Self.

By 1925, Rotary had grown to 200 Clubs with more than 20,000 members. The organization's distinguished reputation attracted presidents, prime ministers, and a host of other luminaries to its ranks – among them author Thomas Mann, diplomat Carlos P. Romulo, humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, and composer Jean Sibelius.

Rotary and World War II

During World War II, many clubs were forced to disband, while others stepped up their service efforts to provide emergency relief to victims of the war, in 1942, looking ahead to the postwar era, Rotarians called for a conference to promote international educational and cultural exchanges. This event inspired the founding of UNESCO.

In 1945, 49 Rotary Club members served in 29 delegations to the UN Charter Conference, Rotary still actively participates in UN conferences by sending observers to major meetings and covering the United Nations in its publications.

“Few there are who do not recognize the good work which is done by Rotary Clubs throughout the free world”, former Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain once declared.

Dawn of a new century

As it approached the 21st Century, Rotary worked to meet society's changing needs, expanding its service efforts to address such pressing issues as environmental degradation, illiteracy, world hunger, and children at risk.

In 1989, the organization voted to admit women into clubs worldwide and now claims more than 145000 female members in its ranks.

After the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Rotary Clubs were formed or re-established throughout Central and Eastern Europe. The first Russian Rotary Club was chartered in 1990, and the organization underwent a growth spurt for the next several years.

More than a century after Paul Harris and his colleagues chartered the Club that eventually led to Rotary International, Rotarians continue to take pride in their history. In honor of that first Club, Rotarians have preserved its original meeting place, Room 711 in Chicago's Unity Building, by re-creating the office as it existed in 1905. For several years, the Paul Harris 711 Club maintained the room as a shrine for visiting Rotarians. In 1989, when the building was scheduled to be demolished, the Club carefully dismantled the office and salvaged the interior, including doors and radiators. In 1993, the RI Board of Directors set aside a permanent home for the restored Room 711 on the 16th floor RI World Headquarters in nearby Evanston.

Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to over 32,000 Rotary Clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas.

CALCUTTA was the home town for the first Rotary Club in the mainland of Asia. RJ Combes, while on a business trip to USA was so impressed by the “Friendship, fellowship and service” aspects of the movement called Rotary that he wanted to introduce the idea to his friends in Calcutta also. He found no difficulty in finding like minded individuals and thus convenes the first meeting on 26th September, 1919.

The new club was chartered just after three months of the first meeting, on the New Year day of 1920 to be exact. All the twenty charter members were non-Indians. The first Indian member was S. C. Rudra who was inducted in 1921. In 1921 itself Sir Surendernath Banerjee was made an honorary member. The first Indian to become the Club Secretary was Nitish C. Laharry (1926) who climbed all steps to reach Rotary's top slot viz. RI Presidentship in 1962-63. AFM Abdul Ali was the first Indian to adorn the collar of a Club President.

The Rotary emblem, unchanged since 1924, was redesigned many times in the early years of the organization. In 1905, Montague M. Bear, an engraver and member of the Rotary Club of Chicago, sketched a wagon wheel with 13 spokes. The emblem was modified in the years 1906, 1910, 1912 and 1920. In January 1924, the Board formally approved the emblem that was then in use. Not all written descriptions were updated immediately. To clear up any confusion caused by the various decisions about the emblem between 1912 and 1929, a standard description of the existing design, with a keyway, was approved by the 1929 convention.