Rotary Club

The first Rotary Club was founded in Chicago in September 1905 by Paul Harris, an attorney who wanted to recreate the kind of friendly camaraderie among local professionals and businesspeople that he had witnessed growing up in rural Vermont. Although club members initially focused on building social connections and promoting their own business interests, they soon recognized that to ensure the growth and longevity of Rotary they would need to look beyond self-interest to offer some public benefit to the city. Thus in 1907 Rotary undertook its first service project, an effort to establish “comfort stations” (public toilets) in Chicago’s City Hall. 

In the years that followed, Rotary embraced volunteer service as a core element of its identity. New clubs proliferated across the U.S. and abroad. In 1922 the organization adopted the name Rotary International to reflect its global presence, while amending its constitution to include “the advancement of international peace and goodwill” as one of its primary goals.

In 1917, Rotary President Arch C. Klumph spearheaded the creation of a charitable fund “for the purpose of doing good in the world.” The Rotary Foundation was formally established in 1928. Over the course of a century, this endowment has channeled more than USD 4 billion into community-strengthening projects in the organization’s primary program areas: peace and conflict prevention/resolution, disease prevention and treatment, water and sanitation, maternal and child health, basic education and literacy, and economic and community development. Rotary has arguably made its most transformative humanitarian impact as a leader in the fight against polio. The organization began this work in 1979 with a project to vaccinate 6 million children in the Philippines. In 1985 Rotary became a founding member of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), a landmark public-private health undertaking that has immunized more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries, reducing polio cases by 99.9% over the course of four decades. Rotary has invested more than USD 2.1 billion and contributed countless volunteer hours in the effort to defeat this devastating disease.

Describing themselves as “people of action,” Rotarians everywhere harness deep reserves of optimism and generosity – as well as the strength of their global fellowship -- to address the world’s toughest challenges and improve people’s lives.

Contributor: Erin Brown