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What is Rotary?

Rotary is a membership-based community that comes together to accomplish extraordinary things, both locally and around the world. Our unwavering commitment is to serve the community and make positive, lasting change--at home and abroad.

For more than 110 years, Rotarians have used their passion, energy and experience to tackle long-term projects, living the Rotary International motto “Service Above Self”. From literacy and peace to water and health, we are always working to better our world. Rotary makes it easy to “give back”, especially for busy, caring professionals, retirees, parents and teens.

Rotary maintains the highest ethical standards and Rotarians share a common goal of understanding others, providing goodwill and offering peace. Our weekly meetings are the foundation for fellowship and enable business and personal relationships that often last for many years.

A Few Facts

World’s largest service organization with more than 1.2 million members
Over 35,000 clubs in more than 200 countries
The Rotary Foundation, which manages the endowment funds for our charitable giving, recently earned a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, the largest and most prestigious independent evaluator of nonprofits in the United States. CLICK HERE for Charity Navigator.

CNBC ranked Rotary Foundation #5 in their list of Top 10 Charities in the world reflecting our ability “to change the world while maintaining excellent financial standards”. CLICK HERE for Top 10 Charities.

What We Do

Did you know that Rotary launched one of the largest polio vaccinations efforts around the world in 1985? Now, over 2.5 billion children in over 122 countries have been vaccinated, and through our advocacy efforts, contributions have topped $7.2 billion.

Rotary members also work locally to help charities and non-profits, from food pantries to shelter homes, helping others with their basic needs. Rotary clubs focus on fundraising activities as small as bake sales and as large as road races and golf events.

Each Rotary Club has a similar structure of leadership teams, committees and weekly meetings. Rotarians believe in The Four Way Test to guide everything they do, creating a common purpose and direction. This philosophy serves as a foundation for our relationships with each other and the action we take in the world.

The Four Way Test

Created by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor in 1932, this simple code of ethics was adopted by Rotary in 1943 and has been translated into more than 100 languages and published in thousands of ways.

Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

Avenues of Service

Rotary is organized by “Avenues of Service”, providing a foundation for all of our fundraising activities to include:

Club Service keeps the club strong anchored by solid relationships and active membership development efforts.
Vocational Service honors members that represent our “service above self” motto in public service, health and human services, education and general interest.
Community Service encourages every Rotarian to find ways to improve the quality of life for people in their communities and to serve the public interest.
International Service exemplifies our global reach in promoting peace and understanding. We support this service avenue by sponsoring or volunteering on international projects, seeking partners abroad, and more.
Youth Service recognizes the importance of empowering youth and young professionals through leadership and development programs such as Rotaract, Interact and Youth Exchange, among others.

We hope you’ll explore other areas of our website to learn more about Portsmouth Rotary’s:

Upcoming fundraising events and community service projects
Our weekly meeting topics and speakers
Leadership teams, board of directors and committee chairs
Membership guidelines

Thank you for your interest in Portsmouth Rotary Club!