Changing with the times to help children and youth

The Kiwanis Club of Lakeshore Montreal Inc. (KCLM) has been in existence since 1958; it is a volunteer organization that has grown and changed with the times and is dedicated to providing services and raising funds for local community and children’s organizations.

In the good old days, the KCLM was very well known as a hands-on organization and recognized for rendering front-line services directly to the community. We raised tremendous amounts of money and delivered hugely important services to the community. Our club has always been quite distinguished, influential and strong, with businesses wanting to be associated with us; this has changed somewhat in recent years due to changing business priorities, community demographics, technology and social media as well as increased competition for members’ time and volunteer involvement. Regardless of these changes, 2019 saw us donate ($100,000) to over 20 organizations that deliver front-line services to the community.

We continue to change with the times in order to grow and help others; to that end, in April of 2019 we began working with a team of MBA students in the Community Services Elective under the direction of Dave McKenzie of the John Molson School of Business at Concordia. The objective of the Community Service Elective was to develop a marketing and communications plan for our club, improve communications and make our brand more visible. In addition, the objective was also to create awareness about the positive impact of our programs and services in relation to funding not-for-profit, frontline service providers among key stakeholders in the community: e.g.  educational institutions,  community groups,  businesses,  industry leaders, etc.  This will lay the foundation for increasing our membership by creating an environment attractive to younger men and women while maintaining the attraction to our more senior members.