Partner Spotlight: San Diego Kiwanis Club Foundation
We’re proud to spotlight our partner the San Diego Kiwanis Club Foundation!
Did you know that the San Diego Kiwanis Club Foundation gives $250,000 annually to projects and organizations in the San Diego community?
Some of the projects it funded in 2021-22 include:
The Burn Institute's 2022 Camp Beyond the Scars, which provides opportunities for young burn survivors to focus on their well-being, learn new skills, overcome the unique challenges they face growing up with burn scars, and bond with their peers. Camp is one of the longest-running and most successful burn survivor support programs provided by the Burn Institute since 1987.
I Love a Clean San Diego’s annual Kids Ocean Day on May 26, 2022 which engaged over 800 students from Title 1 elementary schools. The event educates students through a hands-on, multi-week educational program and culminates with a one-day event where students participate in a beach cleanup and then create an environmentally-themed aerial art piece.
A new pony for Partners Therapeutic Horsemanship so that young children who are intimidated by the size of a regular horse can still participate in equine therapy. This gift will make it possible for hundreds of younger children to experience the benefits of bonding with a pony!
Traveling Stories was one of the lucky nonprofits to be funded by the Foundation last year, too! Their generosity allowed us to update program technology and significantly increase our capacity!
With the grant from Kiwanis, Traveling Stories was able to move our program sessions from Google Meet to Zoom and take our time designing systems and trainings to make this new process easy for all of our readers and volunteers to adapt to.
Here’s an example of how much that change impacted our capacity!
Using Google Meet, Traveling Stories could comfortably facilitate 60 one-on-one sessions per week. Any more than that and the system would start to break down or get so complicated that volunteers and parents complained.
Using Zoom, we have the tech capacity to facilitate up to 3,000 one-on-one sessions per week!! Thanks to Kiwanis, the tech is here. Now we just got to recruit more kids and volunteers!
One thing that sets the San Diego Kiwanis Club Foundation apart as a funder is that they stay involved even after you cash the check. The Kiwanis Club of San Diego has volunteered with Traveling Stories, they’ve helped promote our events and campaigns, and they’ve provided lots of encouragement!
As a result of our positive experience with Kiwanis, Traveling Stories has joined the San Diego club! We’re excited to continue connecting with other members and being involved in the Foundation’s philanthropy as givers, not just receivers!
The Foundation’s next grant cycle will begin in the Fall. To learn more visit https://kiwanisclubsandiego.org/grant.
If you’re interested in joining the Club as a member, let us know! We’d love to bring you with us to an upcoming event! You can also read more about membership here!
Thank you Kiwanis Club of San Diego and the San Diego Kiwanis Club Foundation for helping to make San Diego a better place for all!