Grants help make club projects special 

Grants help make club projects special 

Sep 3, 2025 | General interest, Kiwanis Children's Fund, Service projects | 0 comments

Three clubs received grants for “classic” Kiwanis projects — with a twist. 

By Erin Chandler 

Some service projects and fundraisers have become staples of Kiwanis clubs around the world. Three of the 18 projects that received Kiwanis Children’s Fund club grants in August put a club’s individual spin on one of these “Kiwanis classics.” Read more below — and think about how your club can make one of your traditional projects an event all your own. 

Healthy Kids, Healthy Adults
Kiwanis Club of Jacksonville, Texas, U.S.
Kiwanis clubs have a long history of building playgrounds for their communities. The Kiwanis Club of Jacksonville is putting its own twist on this classic project by building a playground-adjacent fitness station, allowing teens and adults to exercise while their kids play. This addition to the recently-renovated playground benefits the whole family — when kids can watch their older siblings, parents and guardians “play” on the knee-lift dip station, decline sit-up bench, step-up platforms, pull-up bars and more, they learn the value of maintaining a healthy lifestyle as they grow. A club grant from the Kiwanis Children’s Fund will go toward the purchase of the equipment, surrounding benches and sidewalks, and anchoring and surfacing materials. Club members will work with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department to install and maintain the equipment. 

Charlevoix Elementary School Social Emotional Learning Library
Kiwanis Club of Charlevoix, Michigan, U.S.
The Kiwanis Club of Charlevoix is one of many literacy-focused clubs that have helped supply local schools with books for their libraries and for kids to take home. But as Charlevoix Elementary School implements its new social and emotional learning curriculum, the club discovered its library could benefit from an upgrade. The addition of a Social Emotional Learning Library at the school will help improve kids’ academic performance and overall wellbeing by addressing issues such as anxiety, depression and difficulties with social-emotional development. Thanks to a Kiwanis Children’s Fund club grant, the library will be stocked with videos; software; weighted vests and blankets; sensory tools like stress balls, puzzles and coloring pages; calming lighting; and, of course, books addressing social and emotional issues, all based on instructor wish-lists and the recommendations of a committee made up of teachers, counselors, librarians, authors and more. Everything will be available for classrooms and for students and families to check out.  

Operation Rudolph 2025
Kiwanis Club of Madras, Oregon, U.S.
The Kiwanis Club of Madras is one of many Kiwanis clubs all over the world that spring into action during the holiday season, providing gifts to families that might not be able to afford them. Kiwanis club members have been running Operation Rudolph for over 30 years, purchasing and collecting donations of toys, games, crafts, clothes, hygiene products and more and distributing them through the Department of Human Services, the Latino Community Association, CASA and Mountain Star Relief Nursery. This year, a Kiwanis Children’s Fund club grant will help purchase items that are not typically donated, including warm winterwear, additional hygiene products and items for teens. But the club also turns Operation Rudolph into an opportunity for youth leadership development: Over 200 students take part in the project. Madras High School Key Club begins making gift kits in September, and members lead and mentor younger student volunteers through the process of wrapping hundreds of gifts. They even give suggestions for the setup and planning process.  

How you can help
The Kiwanis Children’s Fund makes grants that improve the lives of children around the world by identifying projects that create a continuum of impact in a child’s life — one that spans their entire childhood and sets them up for a bright future. Through The Possibility Project, the Children’s Fund ensures that its grantmaking has the greatest possible impact, supporting projects that target the Kiwanis causes — health and nutrition, education and literacy, and youth leadership development — whether through a Kiwanis club’s local service project or a club’s partner.   

Learn how your club can apply for a grant to help kids in your community. If you are interested in extending your and your club’s impact beyond your community, make a gift in support of The Possibilty Project.    

Find out about more projects that received club grants next week! 

Lessons from the Kiwanis Polar Dip

Lessons from the Kiwanis Polar Dip

Aug 22, 2025 | Fundraising, General interest, Service projects | 0 comments

The Kiwanis Club of Tysons adopted an existing event and turned it into a successful fundraiser.

By Jeffrey Wolff, event chair, Kiwanis Club of Tysons Polar Dip

Want to raise money for your club, but struggling to find a successful project? At the Kiwanis Club of Tysons, Virginia, U.S., we’ve benefited from maintaining partnerships and connections in the community: Our club of about 25 members has transformed a preexisting “polar dip” into a major fundraiser.  

With the right preparations and a suitable body of water, it’s the kind of event that other clubs can replicate.  

The Kiwanis Polar Dip is an annual event in which teams and individuals jump into Lake Anne in February to raise money for charity. The event was previously held by Camp Sunshine, which provides free getaways to children with illnesses and their families. After participating as a team, our club worked with Camp Sunshine to assume responsibility for the event and turn it into a Kiwanis fundraiser.  

While it requires an “all hands on deck” approach on the day of the event, much of the work — such as recruiting jumpers — can be done from home beforehand. The club just needs to find a place to hold the event, coordinate logistics and set up a website for donations. The Kiwanis name itself adds to donor confidence, making it easier to secure sponsorships and donations.  

Learning and adapting
Our club had more manpower than the individual who ran the event for Camp Sunshine, but our biggest challenge was to learn everything she’d figured out over the previous 15 years — including vendor relationships and the complicated web of organizations that had to be contacted to make the event happen. 

Another key to success was adding a sense of friendly competition. For instance, a leaderboard on the event website tracks how much individuals and teams have raised. We find that you raise more money when you spur competition between jump teams. In addition, the event day has a party-like atmosphere, featuring a DJ and face painting, which make it a fun experience for the participants and the hundreds of spectators. 

The goal for our first year managing the Polar Dip was to raise US$25,000. In just its second year, the event has grossed almost US$50,000. Those funds help fulfill our club’s dual mission: to support the 11 Service Leadership Program (SLP) clubs we sponsor — nine Key Clubs, one CKI club and one K-Kids club — and to fight food insecurity in Northern Virginia. In the past, the Kiwanis Polar Dip had solely supported Camp Sunshine. But to support our mission as well, we added Food for Neighbors, which provides meals for middle school and high school students, as a major beneficiary of the event 

The event also has received significant community support, with roughly 60-70 jumpers and 150-200 spectators. It also has been featured on the front page of local newspapers. The success of the Kiwanis Polar Dip has had a positive impact on the Kiwanis Club of Tysons, increasing its visibility and fostering a greater sense of success and involvement with local beneficiaries and the community.

A president’s challenge sparks club growth 

A president’s challenge sparks club growth 

Aug 18, 2025 | Club building, General interest, Service projects | 0 comments

In its centennial year, the Kiwanis Club of Glens Falls grew from 60 members to over 100. 

By Destiny Cherry

Jerrod Ogden felt the need for something to boost his Kiwanis club’s growth — and to inspire more excitement and commitment among established members. In the years since COVID-19, membership additions for the Kiwanis Club of Glens Falls, New York, U.S., had slowed to five to seven new members per year.

So Ogden, the club’s president, issued a challenge: Can we get to 100 members in our 100th year? That challenge required a game plan and some new approaches. 

The game plan
The structure was simple. For the club’s membership drive, which took place in March and April, three randomly selected teams would be assigned a former club leader as their captain.

The team that brought in the most new members would take home the first-place prize: a US$500 donation to a charity of the team’s choice. A $200 donation would be awarded for second place and $100 for third.

Members reacted to the challenge with a readiness to support the club and their charity — and a healthy eagerness to compete.

New approaches
The club used a few different methods to draw in new members: 

  • They asked better questions. For example: “Why haven’t you joined yet?” instead of “Do you want to join?”  
  • They simplified the orientation process. Prospective members were allowed to come to meetings, learn more about the club and ask questions, which resulted in a 98% conversion rate from attendance to joining.  
  • They emphasized fitting the initial level of involvement to what interested or inspired the new member. The message: “Don’t worry about doing everything. Find out where your commitment makes the most sense. Then make that commitment, honor the commitment and give it your all.” 

The result
The membership drive was a resounding success, pushing the club’s roster from 67 to 103. And the battle to win Odgen’s challenge was close: The first-place team brought in 11 members, and two other teams tied for second with 10. 

All together, the Kiwanis Club of Glens Falls donated $900 to local organizations: 

  • $500 to a local sneaker foundation that buys shoes for children starting school.  
  • $200 to a local youth center’s after-school programming.  
  • $200 to the local Cub Scouts.  

For Ogden, the drive’s success wasn’t measured solely in recruiting numbers — it was also the newfound excitement among established members. He noted an increase in engagement and pride in service projects, while club members who had not been very active showed up with fresh enthusiasm. 

“We looked within,” Oden says. “We pride ourselves on the personal connections we form with members, so getting to share the strength of those relationships with the public reinvigorated our own commitment to each other.”

Unexpected highlights
Some other remarkable things happened because of the drive: 

  • A club member’s significant other joined the club and has since become a Kiwanis advisor for a local Key Club. 
  • Two families that have multiple members in the club welcomed third-generation members. 
  • A woman who had not been affiliated with the Kiwanis family since her time in Key Club became a member. 
  • A Cornell University graduate who was a previous recipient of the club’s $10,000 scholarship joined. 

Ideas and inspiration
The key, Ogden says, is to “find out what makes your club infectious.” 

In addition to ideas that the Glens Falls club might inspire, Kiwanis International also has a webpage of recruiting resources that your club can use at any time. Check it out!