In 1985, Rotary made a historic commitment to immunize all of the world's children against polio. Working in partnership with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and national governments, Rotary is the largest private-sector contributor in the global polio eradication campaign. Through its PolioPlus program, Rotary raised more than US$240 million and will have contributed half a billion dollars to the cause by 2005, the target date for certification of polio eradication and Rotary's centennial year. Rotarians have mobilized hundreds of thousands of PolioPlus volunteers to promote and carry out national immunization days in polio-endemic countries, resulting in the immunization of nearly two billion children worldwide.

Throughout the late 20th century, Rotary International's service program has adapted to the times. Rotary began to address the pressing global issues of environmental degradation with the formation of the Preserve Planet Earth program in 1990. Other programs were formed to address illiteracy, drug abuse, and the needs of both an aging population and the increasing number of children at risk.

Reflecting society in 1905, the organization had been limited to male members and remained so officially until 1989, when the Council on Legislation, Rotary's parliament, voted to eliminate the male-only provision, opening up membership to qualified women across the world (though the U.S. women Rotarians began to appear during the 1986-1987 Rotary year). Today, there are approximately 145,000 women Rotarians worldwide, many of them serving in leadership roles.

Rotary experienced a growth spurt in the early 1990s when it expanded into former Soviet bloc countries following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union. Beginning in 1989, clubs in Central and Eastern Europe that had been disbanded for more than 50 years were re-established, and the first Russian Rotary club was chartered in 1990.

Nearly 100 years after Paul Harris and his colleagues chartered the club that would become Rotary International, Rotarians continue to take pride in their history. In honor of the club that first gathered in Room 711, Rotarians have preserved the room in an extensive re-creation of the office as it existed in 1905. For several years, the club maintained the room as a shrine for visiting Rotarians. In 1989, when the Unity Building was scheduled to be demolished, Rotary's 711 Club carefully dismantled the office, salvaging the original interior, including doors and radiators. In 1993, the Board of Directors of Rotary International set aside a permanent home for the restored Room 711 on the 16th floor of RI World Headquarters in Evanston, Illinois.