3 tools to refresh your fundraising 

3 tools to refresh your fundraising 

Dec 11, 2024 | Fundraising, General interest | 0 comments

If your club’s annual event or activity is growing stale, these ACE tools can help.

By Tony Knoderer

Service is the heart of every successful Kiwanis club. But service projects cost money. That’s what makes fundraising a key activity for Kiwanis clubs. For many clubs, an annual fundraiser supports members’ service — and attracts the kind of attention that makes the Kiwanis name recognizable throughout the community.  

But even a time-tested fundraiser can get stale. Kiwanis International can help keep things fresh. If your club is having the fundraiser discussion — or needs to have it — make sure club leaders know about these Achieving Club Excellence (ACE) tools: 

  • Community survey. Maybe you need to begin with a big question: What interests the community? This step-by-step tool helps gather the information and data you’ll need to get back in touch with people’s concerns and preferences.  
  • Evaluate your impact. This tool helps you get an objective view of your club’s current activities to determine the best ways to use your resources. 
  • Develop partnerships. Collaboration is a cornerstone of service and fundraising. With this tool, you have a guide to identifying the organizations, businesses and individuals in the community who can help you mitigate the costs — and increase the success—of your fundraiser.  

All these resources can be found on the ACE tools webpage, which includes other common concerns clubs face — and pairs them with the tools that help club leaders address them.  

Kiwanis’ global impact in 2024 

Kiwanis’ global impact in 2024 

Dec 3, 2024 | General interest, News, Service Leadership Programs, Service projects | 0 comments

Look back at some of the Kiwanis family’s biggest events and highlights this year.

By Sarah Moreland

Can you believe that 2024 is almost over? Before we pull out the party hats and noisemakers to usher in 2025, let’s look back at some of the Kiwanis family’s biggest events and highlights of the past year. 

More service and support

We wouldn’t be Kiwanis without service to kids, and this year, clubs around the world continued to make communities near and far a better place. Just a few examples: 

  • The Kiwanis Club of Pakistan built a sustainable water source in a village in Sindh, where villagers previously traveled up to 12 miles for access to clean water.  
  • Members of the Kiwanis Club of Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo established psychological support programs for children traumatized by violence and natural disasters. 
  • The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S., celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Burning of Zozobra with 65,000 people in attendance — and more than 1.5 million virtually — to raise money for several youth organizations. 
  • When students at McMillian Middle School in Florida, U.S., qualified to compete at the World Robotics Championships, the Kiwanis Club of Miami sponsored 20 students to attend. 
  • Several clubs turned milestone anniversaries into opportunities for philanthropy, including the Kiwanis Club of Roseville, which commemorated 75 years with a combined donation of US$75,000 to 15 organizations in its California, U.S., community.  

Looking for more examples of amazing Kiwanis projects? Meet the winners of the 2024 Kiwanis Signature Project Contest.  

Submissions for the 2025 Signature Project Contest will be accepted beginning in early January.  

More collaboration 

We achieve more together. That’s why Kiwanis members once again teamed up for a week with Lions Clubs International, Optimist International and Rotary International for the fourth annual Celebrate Community. Kiwanians around the world — from India and Mexico to the Philippines and the United States — participated, continuing a tradition of global service and unity.  

More possibilities

The Kiwanis Children’s Fund launched The Possibility Project, the first fundraising campaign that solely supports Kiwanis and the children we serve. More than US$6 million has been raised so far — but there’s still so much work to do to ensure kids everywhere are healthy, happy and successful.  

Other highlights from the Children’s Fund in 2024: 

  • Meet the seven outstanding Key Club and CKI leaders who received scholarships to continue their education. Students can apply now until February 1, 2025, for the next round of scholarships — including the new US$4,500 Wagner Family Scholarship for Key Club members. 
  • The second annual Kiwanis Day of Giving nearly doubled its initial goal, resulting in more than US$130,000 raised for the Children’s Fund! That’s enough to reach more than 57,000 children. Mark your calendars now: Kiwanis Day of Giving returns February 25. 
  • UNICEF announced that Mali and Guinea are the latest countries to have achieved maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT) elimination. The Children’s Fund continued the Kiwanis family’s support for the fight against MNT with a US$275,000 grant to UNICEF in July.  

More learning and leadership 

Each year, Kiwanis members step up to lead their clubs, districts and the organization as a whole: 

  • At the 2024 Kiwanis International Convention in Denver, delegates elected Lee Kuan Yong of the Malaysia District as 2024-25 Kiwanis International president. Michael Mulhaul of the New Jersey District was elected to serve as president-elect, and Hope Markes of the Eastern Canada and Caribbean District as vice president. Dawn Puderbaugh Hodges of the Carolinas District, Jo Schwartz of the Kansas District and Scott Sims of the Alabama District were also elected trustees for the United States and Pacific Canada Region. See the full House of Delegates recap. Start planning for the 2025 Kiwanis International Convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., June 25-28! 
  • This year, nearly 600 Kiwanians representing 30 countries completed Kiwanis Amplify, our robust online leadership program featuring interactive modules on topics like communications, diversity and event planning. Read about two Kiwanians’ experiences with the program — and then plan to join the next cohort in early 2025. Registration opens January 6 at kiwanis.org/amplify.  
  • Paul Palazzolo became the executive director of Kiwanis International after the retirement of Stan Soderstrom on January 29. Palazzolo served as the 2009-10 Kiwanis International president. He first joined the Kiwanis family in the early 1980s when he joined the Key Club of Sacred Heart-Griffin High School in Springfield, Illinois, U.S.  

More student leadership development

The Kiwanis family consists of volunteers of all ages. Our Service Leadership Programs (SLPs) span elementary school through university and include a club for adults with disabilities. Here are a few SLP highlights for 2024: 

Key Club International, our program for high school students, continues to grow — now exceeding 225,000 members worldwide! Key Club members continue to raise money for Start Strong: Zambia, a fundraising campaign with UNICEF to support early childhood education in the southeastern African nation. As of November, members have raised almost US$200,000 for the campaign. At the 2024 Key Club International Convention, attendees developed their skills at leadership workshops and weaved mats out of recycled plastic bags for the host city’s unhoused population. During the convention, delegates elected David Robaina of the Southwest District as 2024-25 Key Club International president. 

Get ready to celebrate! Key Club turns 100 on March 25. Find out how you can get involved. 

Circle K International, our program for university students, held its 2024 convention in Denver in tandem with the Kiwanis International convention. Delegates elected Taylor DiCicco of the Alabama District to serve as 2024-25 Circle K International president. Attendees participated in workshops about CKI projects and initiatives, including Brick x Brick, in partnership with UNICEF USA. CKI has, to date, raised more than US$130,000 for Brick x Brick, which supports sustainability, education and empowerment for families in the African nation of Côte d’Ivoire by building classrooms with recycled materials. CKI has raised enough money to build two classrooms! 

CKI will again join Kiwanis in Pittsburgh in June 2025 for its concurrent convention. 

 

Kiwanis mourns former Children’s Fund President Velnes 

Kiwanis mourns former Children’s Fund President Velnes 

Dec 2, 2024 | General interest, News | 0 comments

The 2020-21 Kiwanis Children’s Fund president died November 22.

By Jennifer Morlan 

Norm Velnes, the 2020-21 Kiwanis Children’s Fund president, died November 22. He was 82. A member of the Kiwanis Club of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, he was appointed as a Children’s Fund trustee in 2015. 

Velnes joined Kiwanis in 1984 and held a variety of leadership positions, including club president and lieutenant governor, and he was the 2003-04 governor of the Western Canada District. Velnes was a Walter Zeller Fellow and received a Presidential Zeller Fellowship. He was a member of the Kiwanis Foundation of Canada’s Mel Osborne Fellowship. 

Velnes’ involvement with the Kiwanis Children’s Fund allowed him to merge his professional expertise with his passion for volunteer work. As president of The Velnes Group, a development consulting firm, he helped organizations with strategic planning, feasibility studies and fundraising campaigns.  

“Norm had tremendous insights that he was able to share with the Kiwanis Children’s Fund,” said Robert Maxwell, 2024-25 chair of the Children’s Fund. “We relied on his fundraising knowledge and his passion for supporting Kiwanis’ mission of serving the children of the world. He was an exceptional leader and had a kind heart. He was a force that will be missed by all. I offer my sincerest condolences to his family and the Kiwanis family.” 

Velnes earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Divinity degrees from the University of Winnipeg and was ordained as a minister with the United Church of Canada. He served in ministry at the Birtle-Miniota Wider Parish, followed by team ministry at St. Vital United Church in Winnipeg.  

He spent 12 years in fund development for the United Church of Canada in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario and was later president of the Manitoba division of the MS Society of Canada.  

In addition to his work with Kiwanis, Velnes had been chair of the Speaker’s Bureau of the United Way of Winnipeg; served as board member of Golden West Centennial Lodge; was vice chair at Winnipeg Presbytery Foundation, United Church of Canada; and was past chair of the Canadian Association of Gift Planners. 

He is survived by his wife, Margaret, his four children, a stepson and six grandchildren.