Kiwanis Childrens Fund

This year, the Kiwanis Children's Fund (KCF) will be sending your club its annual gift renewal earlier and I will be reaching out to clubs, as well.
At the K Family weekend, I asked one of our lieutenant governors this question: how many organizations does your club support in a year? Ten, 20, 30? Shouldn't the Kiwanis Children's Fund be one of them? Unfortunately, most of the clubs in our great New York District are not supporting the Kiwanis Children's Fund, and I would like to help your club change that!
Both clubs and individual members can make gifts to the KCF; both count towards your club's totals. After doing a little bit of research, I found some troubling numbers from the 2017-18 year. At first glance, the records show that 47 percent of our clubs gave to the KCF - less than half. Upon further review, several clubs received credit because only an individual within a given club donated, which again, is credited to the club. When factoring this in, only 28 percent of our CLUBS made a conscious gift to the Children's Fund. Surely, we can do better than that!
How are donations to the Kiwanis Children's Fund used? There are five major areas of funding.
1. Service Leadership Programs - more than 40% of the money given to the KCF goes directly to SLP programs.
2. Disaster Relief - I applaud the tremendous work that our NY District Foundation does with regards to Disaster Relief, but we cannot be everywhere and give all that is needed. Additionally, ALL clubs in an affected disaster area can apply for up to $5,000 in disaster relief from the Children's Fund.
3. District and Club Grants - every club can apply for a grant through the KCF, but the District also is eligible for 15 percent of the amount of money raised in the previous year. For example, $6,213 will be eligible for Gov. Hank to help with his Governor's Project of sending military kids to Kamp Kiwanis. Donations raised in this administrative year will be used by Governor-Elect Joe Ruggiero.
4. IDD - our first worldwide service project was preventing Iodine Deficiency Disorder, the world's leading preventable cause of mental and developmental disabilities. Through our efforts, iodized salt consumption led to an increase in access from less than 20 percent of households worldwide to more than 70 percent, leading UNICEF to acknowledge that increase to be "one of the greatest public health accomplishments" in the 20th century.
5. The Eliminate Project - our current worldwide service project to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus. Of the original 38 countries afflicted with MNT when the project started, only 14 remain.
Please speak with your club today about giving to the Kiwanis Children's Fund. Invite me to give a presentation, speak with me at Mid Year, or ask me to a divisional meeting. I am willing to meet whenever and wherever possible to share the great work of the Kiwanis Children's Fund!

Column Posted on Web Site January 22, 2019