• To give primacy to the human and spiritual rather than to the material values of life.
• To encourage the daily living of the Golden Rule in all human relationships.
• To promote the adoption and the application of higher social, business, and professional standards.
• To develop, by precept and example, a more intelligent, aggressive, and serviceable citizenship.
• To provide, through Kiwanis clubs, a practical means to form enduring friendships, to render altruistic service, and to build better communities.
• To cooperate in creating and maintaining that sound public opinion and high idealism which make possible the increase of righteousness, justice, patriotism, and goodwill.
  

Following its founding in 1915 in Detroit, Michigan, Kiwanis quickly became "international" with the organization of the Kiwanis Club of Hamilton, Ontario, on November 1, 1916.

Further international development, however, did not occur until delegates at the 1961 International Convention in Toronto, Ontario, voted to expand the Kiwanis movement beyond the shores of North America. On April 17, 1962, the Kiwanis Club of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, was organized and became the first Kiwanis club outside Canada and the US.

Today, Kiwanis clubs can be found in more than 70 countries. The Kiwanis Club of Stratford was founded in 1947. The Stratford club is currently in Division 5 West - (Black Walnut), which is part of the Eastern Canada & Caribbean District.