With more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide, Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self.

During the 1911 Portland convention Ben Collins, president of the Rotary Club of Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, talked with Seattle Rotarian J.E. Pinkham about the principle his club had adopted: Service, Not Self. Paul Harris asked Collins to address the convention, and the phrase Service, Not Self was met with great enthusiasm. In 1989 the Council on Legislation established Service Above Self as the principal motto of Rotary, because it best conveys the philosophy of unselfish volunteer service.