About The Rotary Foundation

What is The Rotary Foundation?

Founded in 1917 with a $26.50 gift, The Rotary Foundation is the charitable arm of Rotary International. It turns member contributions into grants that fund clean water systems, disease prevention, peacebuilding, and education around the world — including right here in Central Maryland and Washington, D.C.

2026-27 Theme: Create Lasting Impact

Each Rotary year, Rotary International’s president sets a theme for the organization’s focus. For 2026-27, President Olayinka H. Babalola has called on Rotary members to Create Lasting Impact — building on 2025-26’s Unite for Good by pushing every club and district toward results that endure, not just one-time wins. The Rotary Foundation is how that theme becomes real: it’s the funding engine behind projects built to outlast the volunteers who start them.

Why give?

Every dollar given reflects the same standard Rotarians apply to everything we do — the Four-Way Test. Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill? Giving to the Foundation is how that fairness reaches beyond our own clubs to communities that need it most, here and abroad.

Rotary’s Seven Areas of Focus

• Peacebuilding and conflict prevention
• Disease prevention and treatment
• Water, sanitation, and hygiene
• Maternal and child health
• Basic education and literacy
• Community economic development
• Environment

 The impact of your giving, by the numbers

Across Rotary worldwide:

• 90.8% of every dollar given goes directly to Foundation programs, not overhead
• Polio cases have dropped 99.9% since 1988, when Rotary helped found the Global Polio Eradication Initiative
• Rotary has contributed more than $2.9 billion to polio eradication since 1985

Right here in District 7620 (2025-26 Rotary year):

• 31 Global Grants approved, reaching communities in 13 countries
• 26 District Grants awarded, totaling $98,507 in District Designated Funds

A few 2026-27 projects already underway

• Freetown Farm Outdoor Classroom Construction (Columbia-Patuxent) — a District Grant building an outdoor classroom at a Columbia, MD nonprofit farm and ecology center
• Bonaba Elementary School Wells Project (Pikesville-Owings Mills) — a District Grant funding a new well for a 400-student school in Senegal that currently has none
• Rotary Junction: ECMO and Critical Histopathology Equipment (Charlotte Hall) — a Global Grant supplying critical-care hospital equipment in India
• Global Grant Scholarship for Ayomide Badmus — a Global Grant funding graduate study abroad