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. Kiwanis membership spans the globe, with more than 300,000 members in more than 8,000 clubs in 82 countries, giving $70 million and 7 million volunteer hours for community service each year.

Objectives of Kiwanis:
The six permanent Objects of Kiwanis International were approved by Kiwanis club delegates at the 1918 Convention in Providence, Rhode Island. Through the succeeding seventy-five years-plus, 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.