Rotary is a volunteer organisation with over 32,000 clubs in 200 countries and geographical areas. The Family of Rotary is over two million strong including 1.2 million Rotarians, 250,000 Interactors, 170,000 Rotaractors, 150,000 Rotary Community Corps members and over 8000 young people in Rotary Youth Exchange. The organization initiates humanitarian programmes that address today's challenging issues, such as hunger, poverty, and illiteracy. In Great Britain and Ireland there are 58,000 members in 1845 clubs.

Rotary club members represent a cross-section of business and professional leaders worldwide. These 1.2 million men and women donate their expertise, time, and funds to support local and international projects that help people in need and promote understanding among cultures.

The mission of Rotary International, the worldwide association of Rotary Clubs, is to provide service to others, promote high ethical standards, and advance world understandinbg, goodwill, and peace through the fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders.  Rotarians undertake projects locally, nationally and internationally which help “create a better world”. They use their professional and business skills voluntarily to help others.

Once someone has been invited to join Rotary they are welcome to visit any Club anywhere in the world. A friend in nearly every city! Clubs work together to link countries.

Each Rotary Club operates autonomously within the Rotary family and selects causes it wishes to support each year and the key to the ethos of all Clubs is fellowship and friendship, a social programme and fun!

Community service is the traditional and well-known face of Rotary. It covers help and advice to all those in need, either directly or through local charitable organisations.

Rotary Clubs focus on community projects (childhood immunisation, literacy) and helping the young and the elderly.  Rotary's flagship programme is its effort to protect children against polio, with the goal of ending the disease throughout the world.

Rotary also supports programmes for youth, educational opportunities and international exchanges for students, teachers, and other professionals, along with vocational and career development.

Rotarians use the motto “Service Above Self”.

A painting by Rosa Branson, one of London's foremost painters, entitled Service above Self

Rotary’s Guiding Principles

The Object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and in particular to encourage and foster:

1.   The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service.

2.   High ethical standards in business and professions; the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society.

3.   The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s personal, business, and community life.

4.   The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.