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What Is Kiwanis?

Kiwanis International was founded January 21, 1915, in Detroit, Michigan, by Allen Simpson Browne, a Moose lodge organizer, and Joseph G. Prance, a tailor. Kiwanis is an organization devoted to the principle of service; to the advancement of individual, community, and national welfare; and to the strengthening of international goodwill. Since its found, Kiwanis has expanded into a family of service clubs that include young European adults (Kiwajuniors), university and college students (Circle K), high school students (Key Club), middle and junior high school students (Builders Club), and elementary school students (K-Kids). Kiwanis-family membership spans the globe, with more than 600,000 members in more than 13,000 clubs in 79 countries. Kiwanis clubs alone give on average $70 million and 6.5 million volunteer hours for community service each year.

[ Objects of Kiwanis]

The six permanent Objects of Kiwanis International were approved by Kiwanis club delegates at the 1924 Convention in Denver, Colorado. Through the succeeding decades, they have remained unchanged.

• 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, to 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.

Kiwanis: Serving the Children of the World