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What makes The Rotary Foundation unique is its three-year funding cycle and the Foundation's mechanism for program participation, known in Rotary as SHARE.

Through the three-year cycle, funds contributed in any given year are invested for three years before being spent on programs. This ensures that the full 100% of contributed dollars go to programs; only investment earnings are used to pay administrative costs. In years in which the Foundation's investments have performed well, the Foundation has been able to channel extra monies into program awards.

SHARE is the system the Foundation uses to allocate Rotarian contributions toward programs. At the end of the fiscal year, each District's contributions to the Annual Programs Fund is split, with 50 percent going to the district (to each district's District Designated Fund, or DDF) and 50 percent going to The Rotary Foundation (known as the World Fund, or WF). Districts can choose from a wide variety of options as to how they wish to spend their DDF. The Foundation uses the World Fund to pay for certain program activities available to all Rotary districts. The system allows Rotary districts and the Foundation to SHARE in the process of deciding how best to use Rotarian contributions.