| Type | Service |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1915 |
| Location | Indianapolis, Indiana, United States |
| Origins | Detroit, Michigan, United States |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Method | Community service |
| Revenue | US$20,723,000 (2006)[1] |
| Endowment | US$6,000,000 (2006)[2] |
| Employees | ~120[3] |
| Members | 275,000 |
| Motto | "Serving the Children of the World" |
| Website | http://www.kiwanis.org/ |
Kiwanis International is an international, coeducational service club founded in 1915. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Current membership is 240,000 members in 7,700 clubs in 80 nations. The average age is 57; the membership is 74% men and 26% women.
The name “Kiwanis” was coined from an Otchipew American Indian expression, "Nunc Kee-wanis", variously translated as "we trade," "we share our talents,"[4] "we make a noise," or "we meet."[5] The organization's founders translated it as "We build," which became the original motto of Kiwanis.[6] The current motto is "Serving the Children of the World". Members of the club are called Kiwanians.
Kiwanis International is headed by a Board of Trustees, an International President and other officers. These officers are elected at the annual convention of Kiwanis International. There are fifty three administrative districts, each headed by a Governor, and the districts are further divided into service areas called divisions, comprising 12 to 20 clubs and headed by a Lieutenant Governor. Every club has a president and board of directors.
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"Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world, one child and one community at a time."[7]
The six permanent Objects of Kiwanis International were approved by Kiwanis club delegates at the 1924 Convention in Denver, Colorado.[8]
The organization originated in August 1914 in Detroit, Michigan from a conversation between Allen S. Browne and Joseph G. Prance. Browne's idea was to solicit business and professional men asking them if they would be interested in organizing a fraternal organization with a health benefit feature. Brown was compensated five dollars per new member that joined for his operating budget. Browne and Prance set out and recruited enough members to apply to the state for a not for profit status. The state approved the application on January 21, 1915 and The Supreme Lodge Benevolent Order Brothers was formed. The name was changed to Kiwanis a year later. The Kiwanis Club of Detroit is the original local club in Kiwanis.[10] By 1927 the organization had more than 100,000 members.[11]
Kiwanis became international with the organization of the Kiwanis club of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in 1916. Kiwanis limited its membership to the United States and Canada until 1962, when worldwide expansion was approved. Since then, Kiwanis has spread to all inhabited continents of the globe.
The original purpose of Kiwanis was to exchange business between members and to serve the poor. The debate as to whether to focus on networking or service was resolved in 1919, when Kiwanis adopted a service-focused mission. Each year, clubs sponsor nearly 150,000 service projects and raise more than $107 million. As a global project in coordination with UNICEF, members and clubs contributed more than $80 million toward the global elimination of iodine deficiency disorders (IDD), the leading preventable cause of mental retardation. Beginning in 2010 Kiwanis International joined with the World Health Organization to launch a new worldwide health initiative, Project EliMiNaTe, dedicated to wiping out maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT), which kills more than 100,000 babies worldwide each year.[12]
Until 1988 the organization accepted only men as members. By action of the International Convention in 1987, the rules were changed to admit women as well.[13] Currently women constitute about 26% of total members.
Kiwanis tries to serve children and youth using two approaches. One attempts to improve the quality of life directly through activities promoting health, education, etc. The other tries to encourage leadership and service among youth. In pursuit of the latter goal, Kiwanis sponsors about 7,000 youth service clubs with nearly 320,000 youth members.
Kiwanis members help shelter the homeless, feed the hungry, mentor the disadvantaged, and care for the sick. They have built playgrounds and raised funds for pediatric research.[14]
As a global project in coordination with UNICEF, members and clubs contributed more than $80 million toward the global elimination of iodine deficiency disorders (IDD), the leading preventable cause of mental retardation. Beginning in 2010 Kiwanis International once again joined with UNICEF to launch a new worldwide health initiative,[15] dedicated to wiping out maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT), which kills more than 60,000 babies and a significant number of women each year.[16]
In 2007, the charitable financial arm, Kiwanis International Foundation, was awarded the top rating by an independent evaluator.[17]
Kiwanis provides leadership and service opportunities for youth through its Service Leadership Programs. Key Club, Circle K, Builders Clubs and K-Kids are part of Kiwanis Service Leadership Programs. They are sponsored by a local Kiwanis Club and receive funding and professional guidance from Kiwanis.
Kiwanis founded and supports Key Club International. Started in Sacramento, California in 1925, Key Club is the oldest and largest service program for high school students in the world. As of 2010, Key Club has 250,000 members in 5,000 clubs in 30 nations,[18] primarily in the United States and Canada, but with clubs also in Central and South America, Caribbean nations, Asia, and Australia. KIWIN'S (pronounced "kee-wins"), a high school program exclusive to the California-Nevada-Hawaii district, operates under the umbrella of Key Club but elects its own officers.
The collegiate version of Kiwanis, which maintains some autonomy from Kiwanis, is Circle K International, also known as CKI. The first official Circle K club was chartered in September, 1947 at the campus of Carthage College (then in Illinois). As of 2010, Circle K membership is 12,600 members in 500 clubs in 17 countries, making Circle K the largest collegiate service organization of its kind in the world.[19]
K-Kids (elementary school) current membership is 33,000 in 1,100 clubs in 8 nations. Builders Club (middle school) currently has 42,000 members in 1,400 clubs in 12 nations. Aktion Club (for people who have disabilities) currently has 8,400 members in 400 clubs in 7 nations. These are all considered Kiwanis-led programs, whereas Key Club and Circle K elect their own club, district, and International officers each year to lead the organization. Kiwanis Junior is part of the European Service Leadership Program, with clubs in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy, and is typically for people ages 18–35.[20][21]
Before 1987, women's auxiliary clubs known as Kiwaniannes also existed, made up of wives of members of the men-only Kiwanis clubs. With the changes that made it possible for women to join Kiwanis clubs, official sponsorship of the Kiwaniannes clubs ended. Some Kiwaniannes clubs merged with their affiliated Kiwanis club, while others converted into independent Kiwanis clubs.