Club History

CURRENT STATISTICS: Total membership – 280,000. Chartered clubs – 8,400 in 96 Nations. Charitable Hours of Int’l Service – 6.2 Million, Correct as of December 2005.

HOW KIWANIS BEGAN: During the summer of 1914, Allen S. Browne, a professional organizer for fraternal groups, had an idea for a new kind of club. In addition to the fellowship and social aspects of other organizations, the members would give preference to each other in the exchange of business and services. Browne began recruiting business and professional men in Detroit, Michigan. Joe Prance, a merchant tailor, was the first to sign up and thus became “the first Kiwanian”.

HOW KIWANIS GOT ITS NAME: Allen S. Browne, the man who organized the first Kiwanis club, proposed that the new group be called the Benevolent Order Brothers. The members rejected this idea, however. As one commented, “Who wants to belong to an organization called BOB?” A committee consulted a local historian, who told them about a phrase in the local Otchipew American Indian language: Nun kee-wanis, which meant “We get together” or “We trade”. The club adopted an abbreviated version of this phrase, Kiwanis.

HOW KIWANIS SERVICE BEGAN: Although organized for the mutual exchange of business, the members of the Detroit #1 club decided to distribute food baskets to needy families during the holiday season of 1914. Thus, Kiwanis community service began before the first club was officially chartered by the state of Michigan on January 21, 1915. Debate over Kiwanis’ purpose, business or community service, would grow in intensity during the organization’s first five years.

THE FIRST KIWANIS CONVENTION: Thanks to Allen S. Browne’s energetic organizing and the members’ contacts in other cities, 16 Kiwanis clubs had been organized by May 1916, when the Cleveland #2 club invited the other clubs to send representatives to a convention. The delegates adopted a basic constitution and George F. Hixson of Rochester, New York, was elected as the first International President.

KIWANIS BECOMES INTERNATIONAL: Kiwanis grew to 32 clubs by the end of 1916 – including the Kiwanis Club of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, on November 1, “the club that made Kiwanis international”.

THE KIWANIS EMBLEM: The second annual convention was held in Detroit in 1917, and a “K” with the words “Kiwanis Club” enclosed in a double circle was adopted as the official emblem.

HOW KIWANIS “BOUGHT ITSELF”: In 1919, the debate over the organization’s purpose, the mutual exchange of business vs. community service, reached a climax at the 4th annual convention in Birmingham, Alabama. As the man who created Kiwanis and a professional organizer, Browne owned rights in the organization. The anti-Browne majority offered to buy him out and Browne named his price: $17,500. Members and clubs quickly subscribed the sum on the convention floor. Thus, Kiwanis “bought itself” and community service triumphed over mutual business back-scratching.

THE KIWANIS MOTTO: Kiwanis ended the year 1920 with 265 clubs and 28,500 members. The Kiwanis Motto, “We Build”, was proposed by Kiwanis Magazine editor Roe Fulkerson and adopted by delegates at that year’s International Convention. “I’ve probably written a million words in my career”, Fulkerson later said, “but those are the two I’m proudest of”.