Club building | Kiwanis International

Corporate memberships grow clubs

Jun 23, 2025 | Club building, General interest | 0 comments

Remember this option for expanding your roster.

By Tony Knoderer

For every Kiwanis club, new members are a lifeline to the future — both for the community and the club itself. That’s why it’s important to think creatively about who can be a member. Could your club use a little flexibility when it comes to making membership appealing?

Don’t forget corporate memberships! At your club’s next meeting, encourage fellow members to discuss this option, which allows a company or organization to join as a member. You might even suggest that members work together to make a list of three to five candidates — and then contact them to start the recruiting process.

Here’s how corporate membership works:

The company is represented at meetings and events by an employee of the company’s choosing.

The company can also choose to pay membership dues or ask the designated employee to do so.

If the designated employee changes jobs, a new employee can be designated to take his or her place without being charged a new member fee.

There is no limit to the number of memberships a company can have. (Each membership must have a specific person designated by the company.)

A designated employee is welcome to invite other, nondesignated employees — as well as friends, family and others — to join the club or attend a meeting.

Of course, this option is also excellent for nonprofit organizations. For any organization in your community, it’s a chance to do good for local kids — and to benefit from the connection to Kiwanis.

Don’t forget: Kiwanis International offers an insert regarding corporate membership that fits our “Join Us” brochure — so people in your club can pass along the information above and more to any company or organizational representatives you meet with.

The brochure and insert are free. They’re available on this Kiwanis Family Store page — along with other inserts that appeal to potential recruits’ specific interests.

7 tips for member retention

Jun 19, 2025 | Club building, General interest, Leadership | 0 comments

Here’s how clubs keep people coming back.

By Tony Knoderer

For Kiwanis clubs, new members bring new ideas — and the kind of energy that refreshes the members you already have. But what can your club do to help people’s initial enthusiasm take root and deepen? And how do you support established members in maintaining their commitment to Kiwanis service?

To help you answer those questions, we’re offering seven quick tips for creating a club culture that makes everyone feel inspired and appreciated:

1. Make new members feel important. A member’s induction into your club will set the tone for how highly they value their membership. Make it feel like the significant event that it is — for them and for the club. Help new members understand the club’s traditions and the commitment it requires.

2. Encourage a sense of connection. The more established members a new member feels comfortable with, the greater the chances they will stay involved. Introduce them — and encourage those connections early on.

3. Give new members a mentor. Kiwanians are happiest when they get involved. Have someone mentor new members for the first year as they experience what your club has to offer.

4. Empower all members to become leaders. Give people the opportunity to lead your club and the support they’ll need to do it. It’s a way of creating a pipeline that makes leadership a steady presence in the club through the years.

5. Invest in member education. Invite interesting speakers. Send members to division, district and international events. Encourage them to share what they learned.

6. Celebrate! Honor members’ achievements — both inside and outside your club — so they feel valued.

7. Reach out to members you haven’t seen in a while. If a member isn’t attending events, there may be a valid reason. Even if life becomes hectic, we all appreciate friends who show they care.

There are more tips and tools where these came from! See our guide to good retention habits, which includes these and other tips. It’s part of our member retention webpage, where you’ll find resources that can help everyone in your Kiwanis club be an advocate for growth and membership.

Kiwanians get kindness in return

May 29, 2025 | Club building, General interest, Service projects | 0 comments

A club in Canada finds itself on the receiving end of the community’s generosity.

By Julie Saetre

Submitted by the Locheil Kiwanis Community Centre, Ontario, Canada

Kiwanians in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, are accustomed to helping their community. Recently, however, members of the Sarnia-Lambton Golden K Kiwanis Club were the recipients of community kindness when a longtime club symbol received an unexpected refresh.

The Sarnia-Lambton club, through its Sarnia Kiwanis Foundation, operates the Lochiel Kiwanis Community Centre, which serves some 1,000 children per week through various youth organizations. Formerly a school, the building was converted into the Community Centre in 1985. To mark the occasion, the club installed a refurbished heritage bell on a cairn outside the building.

In 2024, someone cut the bronze hanger and stole the bell. Thanks to the Sarnia Police Service, the bell was recovered and returned to the Kiwanians — but it had been damaged during its time away.

That’s when local welder Paul Babcock Jr. stepped in. Ironically, his father, Paul Babcock Sr., had restored the bell in 1985. The younger Babcock took it to the family’s shop, Babcock Welding, where he brazed the bell and then built a new tripod with a sturdier hanger that would stand up to any future theft attempts. And he did all the work at no cost.

As a thank you, the Sarnia Kiwanis Foundation awarded Babcock Jr. two plaques of recognition: one to display at the Community Centre and one for the Babcock Welding shop.

“Babcock Welding and Paul Babcock Jr. do a lot for the Sarnia community besides this instance,” says Richard Felton, executive director of the Locheil Kiwanis Community Centre. “We are really grateful to have people like this to help us when needed.”

Has your club received support from the community in an unexpected way? If so, what happened and how did you recognize the effort? Let us know at shareyourstory@kiwanis.org.