The Rotary Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation that supports the efforts of Rotary International to achieve world understanding and peace through international humanitarian, educational, and cultural exchange programs. It is supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world.

The Foundation was created in 1917 by Rotary International’s sixth president, Arch C. Klumph, as an endowment fund for Rotary “to do good in the world.” It has grown from an initial contribution of $26.50 only to more than $55 million. It is one of the largest and most prestigious international fellowship programs in the world.

Some of the programs supported by the Foundation include:

Ambassadorial Scholarships: The Foundation supports the largest non-governmental and most international scholarship program in the world. Scholars study in a country other than their own where they serve as unofficial ambassadors of goodwill. Since 1947, over 37,000 scholars from some 110 countries have received scholarships at a cost of almost $446 million.

District Simplified Grants support the short-term service activities or humanitarian endeavors of districts in communities locally or internationally. This program began in 2003-2004 and, projects in 44 countries at a cost of $5.2 million were awarded.

Group Study Exchange (GSE): These annual awards are made to paired Rotary districts to provide travel expenses for a team of non-Rotarians from a variety of vocations. Rotarian hosts organize a four- to six-week itinerary of educational and cultural points of interest. Since 1965, almost 48,000 individuals in more than 11,000 teams from more than 100 countries have participated at a cost of $85 million.

Health, Hunger and Humanity (3-H) Grants fund large-scale, one- to three-year projects that enhance health, help alleviate hunger, or improve human development. Since 1978, projects in 74 countries have been funded at a cost of $74 million. 3-H program is recently in moratorium.

Individual Grants support the travel of individual Rotarians, spouses of Rotarians. Rotaractors , and qualified Foundation alumni who are planning or implementing service projects. This replaced Discovery Grants and Grants for Rotary Volunteers and began in 2003-2004. Program awards were $1.1 million.

Matching Grants provide matching funds for international service projects of Rotary clubs and districts. Since 1965, more than 20,000 Matching Grants projects in 166 countries have been funded at a cost of more than $198 million.

PolioPlus: Rotarians have mobilized by the hundreds of thousands to ensure that children are immunized against this crippling disease and that surveillance is strong despite the poor infrastructure, extreme poverty and civil strife of many countries. Since the PolioPlus program’s inception in 1985 more than two billion children have received oral polio vaccine. To date, 209 countries, territories and areas around the world are polio-free. As of June 2004, Rotary has committed more than $500 million to global polio eradication.

PolioPlus Partners is a program that allows Rotarians to participate in the polio eradication effort by contributing to specific social mobilization and surveillance activities in polio-endemic countries. In 2003-2004, grants were approved in Africa and South Asia for a total of $330,000.

3-H Planning Grants subsidize the advance planning activities of Rotary clubs and districts designing 3-H projects of a significant size and impact. Also in moratorium in conjunction with 3-H Funds program.

Rotary Grants for University Teachers are awarded to faculty members to teach in a developing nation for three to ten months. Since 1985, 377 university teachers have shared their expertise with a college or university in a developing country.

Rotary World Peace Fellows: Each year up to 70 fellows at the master’s degree level are sponsored to study at one of the six Rotary Centers for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution. In 2003-2004, 62 new scholars from 26 countries received grants totaling $3.9 million for the two-year program.