The Kiwanis International Foundation Board of Trustees meets officially three times per year. Grant requests from throughout the world are reviewed at these meetings. Because funds are limited and needs are great, priority is given to programs that are Kiwanis family-related, national or international in scope, serve young children, and are consistent with Kiwanis International objectives. Funding for these grants is made possible by the generous contributions to the Foundation’s Annual Club Gift Campaign and Kiwanis Children’s Fund, among other donations.

Click here to download a grant application. Please note that KIF does not accept UNSOLICITED grant applications from individuals or any organizations other than Kiwanis clubs and districts.

The Kiwanis International Foundation Board of Trustees approved these grants at its January 2008 meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana:

Kiwanis Club of Birmingham Central (Michigan) – Rest, Educate, Motivate Project: The objective of the R.E. M. (rest, educate, motivate) project is to teach at-risk elementary school children, ages 5-12, the importance of sleep and good sleep habits. Providing a bedtime kit with sleeping essentials and educating the students and their families of the importance of a good night’s sleep can institute change in the lives of children. An adult size sleeping bag will provide warmth and personal space. A nightshirt and stuffed animal will provide comfort. The dental kit will encourage healthy teeth and general good health. These basic provisions will provide each child with the supplies to have a restful sleep.

Kiwanis Club of Florence (Alabama) – Baby’s First Months DVD: Baby’s First Months is a DVD, which provides instructions for care of newborns and postpartum care for parents. This educational aid assists with the hospital to home transition and answers the question, “What do we do now?” Topics include physical care of the newborn, newborn safety, dealing with crying and colic, coping with parent frustration, and shaken baby syndrome. This DVD will be given to parents by hospital staff prior to their discharge from the hospital.

Kiwanis Club of Gilmer (Texas) – Adios Lombrices or Goodbye Worms: Worms prosper where there is poverty, poor sanitation, and poor access to health care. These conditions exist in Guatemala today. Guatemala has a population of approximately 14 million people, and 4.5 million are children. Adios Lombrices plans to de-worm 75% of the 4.5 million children in Guatemala, ages 2 to 15, over a three-year period. This will be accomplished through a school-based program outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO) using a safe, easy to administer chewable tablet.

Kiwanis Club of Greenhills-Forest Park (Ohio) – Safety Rocks: The Safety Rocks program is designed to capture the attention of 3 to 5 year olds. The 30-45 minute presentation includes a short video stressing situations and objects that can be a danger to children. The video teaches the children how to avoid these hazards. As part of the program, Kiwanians read the children a book on home safety. Each child receives a coloring book and a home safety tip sheet to take home to their parents. Daycare centers receive an interactive safety poster and can receive a packet provided by the Kiwanis Club that contains the video and storybooks used in the program.

Kiwanis Club of Hanover (Pennsylvania) – Bulgarian Orphanage: The Bulgarian Orphanage and Medical Relief Fund provide medicines to as many of the approximately 9,000 children in Bulgarian orphanages as possible on an annual basis. The project has been providing aid through donations of medicines and medical supplies from area hospitals, doctors, and individuals since 1992. Distribution of these life saving medicines has resulted in a significantly lower death rate.

Kiwanis Club of Riverside Arlington (California) – The NineZero Project: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol, is the number one cause of intellectual and many other disabilities in the U.S. and the Western world, yet is 100% preventable. This project provides information and education to young people to help them avoid this hazardous behavior. NineZero stands for nine months, zero alcohol.

Kiwanis Club of Stuttgart (Arkansas) – Kiwanis Backpacks for Kids: This program provides children in need with food for the weekends when they do not have access to free or reduced lunches. The children, pre-school to the fourth grade, receive backpacks filled with nutritious, easy-to-prepare foods each Friday afternoon.

Kiwanis Club of Twin City (North Carolina) – Children of Vietnam Mending Hearts: Children of Vietnam currently has a waiting list of over 200 children with life threatening heart conditions. Heart surgery would give these children a chance to reach adulthood. The COV staff interviews each family for need, assists in arranging medical exams and surgery, coordinates with medical personnel throughout the process, makes a post operation visit to the home of each child, and assists in bringing the child for checkups.

The Kiwanis International Foundation Board of Trustees approved these grants at its October 2007 meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana:

The Golden K, Aurora, Illinois, Kiwanis club. Funds earmarked for Hope in Motion, a project of the Hope Wall School, which serves more than 300 children with special needs ranging from mild to severe and profound. The Hope in Motion project will provide these children a safe playground area that accommodates their physical needs and is accessible to their equipment. The accessible playscape can potentially solve many individual developmental needs and help students attain their Individual Education Plan (IEP) goals at the Hope Wall School by improving social and emotional interaction, meeting fine and gross motor therapy goals, and developing communication through play-based therapy.

The Kiwanis Club of Des Plaines, Illinois. Grant will be used to continue the club’s shoe/boot project. For the past six years, the Des Plaines club has provided shoes or boots to local elementary school children, at no cost to their families. The club has provided shoes or boots to more than 600 children.

The Kiwanis Club of Jeremie, Haiti. The Jeremie club sought funds to send 100 children to elementary school. This grant will help by providing teachers, a daily meal, and school uniforms.

The Kiwanis Club of Waynesboro, Virginia. The Kiwanis Club of Waynesboro and the Capital District Foundation support the Augusta Regional Dental Clinic in providing preventative, restorative and extractive oral health care and educational services. This grant will make it possible to provide dental services to an additional 2,000 children annually.

The Kiwanis International Foundation Board of Trustees approved these grants at its October 2006 meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana:

Kiwanis Club of Williamsburg, VA - Mobile Intensive Care Unit program: This grant will aid in the purchase of a vehicle used to transport critically ill children to the Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters (CHKD) in Norfolk, Virginia. The transport unit would begin work on the child immediately rather than when they reach CHKD, thus greatly improving their chances of survival.

Kiwanis Club of Tallahassee-Killearn, FL - Gretchen Everhart School Playground: This grant will go to build a state-of-the-art playground for nearly 250 mentally challenged students, kindergarten to 12th grade, attending the Gretchen Everhart School in Florida.

Kiwanis Club of Princeton-Athens, WV - Kiwanis Park Playground: This grant will go to pay for safe swings, benches, safe surfaces and trash receptacles to continue with the renovation of the Washington Street Park, now the Kiwanis Park, in Princeton-Athens area in West Virginia.

Colorado School of Mines Circle K - Fourth Annual Mammoth Project: For the fourth year in a row, the Circle K club at the Colorado School of Mines is taking a trip to Mexico where they will build homes for families in need. The grant they were awarded will cover a portion of their transportation costs.

Kiwanis Club of Greenville Eastside, SC - Child Passenger Safety DVD: This grant will go toward the production of 40,000 DVDs in both English and Spanish, which will be distributed to every new parent that is discharged from the Greenville Hospital. The DVD will contain information about proper child restraint in an automobile.

Kiwanis Club of Huntsville, AL - Miracle League Field: This grant would go toward the renovation of a current baseball field in Huntsville, Alabama, into a Miracle League Field, a baseball field specifically designed for children with special needs. The field is made from a synthetic soft rubber surface that is wheelchair friendly. The Miracle League makes the dream of playing baseball a reality for everyone, including those with disabilities.

Kiwanis Club of Waynesboro, VA - Augusta Regional Dental Clinic-Children’s Dental Services: This grant is to go for the development of the Augusta Regional Dental Clinic in Fishersville, VA. Uninsured children in this area will be welcome to come to this clinic to receive their dental care at little or no cost to their parents. It is estimated that more than 2,000 children will benefit from this grant.

Kiwanis Club of Roxbury-Succasunna, NJ - Spirit Filled Riders Project: The Kiwanis Club of Roxbury-Succasunna, New Jersey were awarded a grant that will help provide special needs children with an opportunity to ride horses. The grant will bring children between the ages of 2-16 who have Cerebral Palsy, hyperactive disorders, muscular hypotonia and other physical, emotional and mental challenges to a special stable where trained professionals will help them to ride horses. Once trained, these children may be invited to compete at special events.

The Kiwanis International Foundation Board of Trustees approved these grants at its June 2006 meeting in Montréal, Canada:

Rocky Mountain District - Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Institute: A children's hospital that prevents traumatic childhood injuries through research, education and advocacy as well as promotion of correct uses of safety products and specialized training for pediatric emergency caregivers.

Kiwanis Club of Avon Lake, OH - Recycled Safety; Safety Town-Avon Lake: Safety Town is a playground made of child-safe recycled plastics and steels. It is actually a miniature version of a town just the right size for children.

Kiwanis Club of Elba, AL - Playground for Young Children in Elba: Grant provided so that the club could build a youth playground in their community.

Kiwanis Club of Fremont Noon, NE - Kiwanis Community Park Project: This is a club project to update an existing park so that it is more child-safe and to replace and replace old playground equipment.

Kiwanis Club of Greenville Eastside, SC - Child Passenger Safety DVD: Grant for a DVD to explain proper ways to secure a child in an automobile.

Kiwanis Club of Hanover, PA - Bulgarian Orphanage and Medical Relief Fund: Funds to pay for medicine, vitamins and fortified powdered milk for children in state-operated orphanages in Bulgaria.

Kiwanis Club of Helena, AL - Kiwanis All Kids Park: Club project to build a playground for children of all ages and ability levels. The playground will be equipped with ramps and smooth surfaces for the handicapped.

Kiwanis Club of Mitchell, SD - Woodlot Playground Equipment: Grant to fund playground equipment for a Kiwanis Club playground. The equipment will be safe for children of all ages.

Kiwanis Club of Mount Olive, NJ - Kiwanis Outdoor Active Learning Area (K.O.A.L.A.): Grant to help maintain and enhance K.O.A.L.A., a facility that helps special needs children develop strength, stamina, social and emotional skills, verbal expression and emerging language, self-esteem and self-confidence as well as support the intellectual development of 2,500 to 3,000 children.

Kiwanis Club of Oliver/Osoyoos, British Colombia, Canada - Kiwanis Aktion Club-Beaver Lodge Apartments: Project to provide affordable housing to adults with developmental disabilities, specifically Aktion Club members.

Kiwanis Club of Portland, OR - Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp for Autism: Grant given to club to provide a club for autistic individuals to experience the outdoors.

Kiwanis Club of Richland, WA - Improve Bone Fracture Surgical Care in Developing Countries: Funds were provided to increase the ability of medical professionals in developing nations to better treat broken bones through surgical intervention.

Kiwanis Club of Santa Barbara, CA - SPARK Enrichment Centers: Grant was given for a program that plans to stimulate early brain development in underprivileged infants and toddlers through art, music, books, numeric concepts, motion, colors, shapes, textures and more.

Kiwanis Club of Sumter, SC - Kiwanis for Children’s Books: A grant was awarded to provide new books to fill the community's new library serving more than 12,000 children.

Kiwanis European Federation - Special Olympics: The Foundation provided a grant to the Special Olympics to aid the organization in continuing its fantastic tradition of allowing special needs athletes to become Olympians.

Kiwanis Junior Italy District - All to School by Giovanni and Paolo: Grant given to the Kiwanis Junior Italy District to restore an old school complete with a woodworking lab, including the woodworking machinery, and furniture for the students.

Michigan District-Division 11 Dictionaries/Thesaurus Project: This ongoing project will provide third-grade students across Michigan with their very own dictionary to keep and use as they learn to read and write, and give seventh-grade students thesauruses as they continue to develop their vocabularies.

Norden District Kiwanis - Albanian Aid: This service project sends boxes of clothing, shoes, toys, kitchen utensils and other useful items to Albanian families in need.