Key Club International is the oldest, largest, and most successful non-profit student-led organization for high school students. Our organization was the inspired vision of California State Commissioner of Schools Albert C. Olney, and vocational education teacher Frank C. Vincent, who together worked to establish the first Key Club at Sacramento High School in California on May 7, 1925. They sought to encourage wholesome youth activities and community service in a school where destructive clubs negatively impacting the school population.

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Fourteen years later marked the birth of the first Key Club district, Florida, and from that point on, Key Club kept on growing, achieving the "international" designation in 1943 and forming the Cali-Nev-Ha District in 1947. Twenty years later, the first Key Club outside the United States and Canada was established in the Bahamas. 

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Female students were first admitted into Key Club in 1977, ten years before women were admitted to Kiwanis International, our sponsoring organization. Female representation continued to grow with the first female district governors being elected in 1979 and first female international president in 1991.

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Since its inception, Key Club International has continued to support global crises around the world: in 1998, Key Club raised $1.2 million to fight iodine deficiency disorders, and in 2008, Key Club raised over $1.3 million to combat HIV/AIDS in Swaziland.

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Today, Key Club exists on almost 5,000 high school campuses, 35 different countries, primarily in the United States and Canada. It has continued to grow internationally to the Caribbean nations, Central and South America, and most recently to Asia and Australia. With over 12 million hours of community service a year, Key Club International is an organization comprised of multi-state districts, divisions, and individual Key Clubs on high school campuses around the world. Our organization is funded by nominal dues paid by every member, as well as generous contributions by Kiwanis International to fund service-leadership training programs. Key Club’s district & international officers are high school leaders elected by the members at district and international conventions. Our community-service organization offers a wide range of opportunities to its members, such as by supporting our International Service Partners March of Dimes (funds research to reduce premature births), UNICEF (works to overcome poverty, violence, discrimination, and disease that afflict children around the world), and Children’s Miracle Network (raises funds for more than 170 children’s hospitals).

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Members of the Kiwanis International family, Key Club members build themselves as they build their schools and communities. Visit Key Club International for information on the structure of Key Club International.