Doing Good: Kiwanis International

Origins
Like several other service clubs of the time, Kiwanis International was born, in 1915, of a conversation between two businessmen around the notion of starting a fraternal organization. Inquiries among other local business professionals indicated strong interest, and that same year the State of Michigan issued the nonprofit charter for the ponderously named Supreme Lodge Benevolent Order of Brothers.

The name was changed a year later to Kiwanis, and a year after that the group went international with the founding of the Kiwanis Club of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Originally formed with a focus on business networking, it was resolved in 1919 to adopt a primary mission of charitable service. 

What’s in a name? 
The group chose “Kiwanis” as its moniker from what a founder believed was a word in the language of the local indigenous Obijwe people. The word is described variously as meaning to "play with noise" or “make oneself known.”  Whatever the original meaning, the Kiwanis took it to mean “We Trade” and adopted it as their motto. In its 1920 international convention, the group changed their motto to  “We Build,” changing it again in 2005 to “We Serve the Children of the World.”

Today
There are more than 600,000 Kiwanians working on over 150,000 projects annually in 80 countries across the globe.  According to the club’s stated mission: "Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to improving the world, one child and one community at a time." 

Kiwanis adheres to six permanent objectives adopted in their 1924 international convention:

• To give primacy to the human and spiritual rather than to the material values of life.
• To encourage the daily living of the Golden Rule in all human relationships.
• To promote the adoption and the application of higher social, business, and professional standards.
• To develop, by precept and example a more intelligent, aggressive, and serviceable citizenship.
• To provide, through Kiwanis clubs, a practical means to form enduring friendships, render altruistic service, and to build better communities.
• To cooperate in creating and maintaining that sound public opinion and high idealism which make possible the increase of righteousness, justice, patriotism, and goodwill.

Operating for most of its life  as an all-male organization, Kiwanis changed the organization membership rules in its 1987 international convention to admit women. 

Kiwanis International is an IRS designated 501(c)4 social welfare organization.  The fundraising arm of the Kiwanis International is the Kiwanis Children’s Fund, a IRS 501(c)3 charitable organization.

Community Service
Local clubs decide which projects to undertake in their communities, and sometimes work with other clubs on projects with regional impact. Members provide a combined annual 12 million hours of volunteer service, and raise more than $100 million through the Kiwanis International Foundation to fund projects in their communities. 

As indicated in its revised motto, children are a primary focus, and Kiwanis works with the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to combat child iodine deficiency and maternal and neonatal tetanus. 

Kiwanis also cultivates leadership and service in youth through its Service Leadership Programs. Started in Sacramento in 1925, Key Club is the oldest high-school youth service organization in the world, with some 250,000 members in 30 countries. The college age Circle K International was formed in 1947 at Carthage College in Illinois and today has a membership of over 12,000 in 17 countries

 Learn more:

Official site: Kiwanis International

Official site: Key Club

Official site: Circle K International

Propublica Charity Explorer Report: Kiwanis International

Charity Navigator Report: Kiwanis Children’s Fund