Module 5 – Using your own domain name with your club site

Who is this for?

Any club or district that has its own custom domain name (like ourkiwanisclub.org) and wants visitors who type that address to land on their official Kiwanis club site — securely, over HTTPS, with no browser warnings.

You’re a good fit if:

• The domain name is registered to and controlled by your club or district.
• You can sign in to the account where you bought the domain (your registrar).
• You want everyone who visits the custom domain pointed to your club site.

You don’t have to do this alone. The steps below are something you’ll do in your own Cloudflare account, but our team will guide you through them on a call. Kiwanis does not manage or log into your Cloudflare account for you — it stays yours. Reach out to schedule onboarding before you start.

What this does (in plain terms)

Your club site lives at an address based on your club’s number — for example https://k12345.site.kiwanis.org, where k12345 is your club number. That address is hard to remember and share. A custom domain like ourkiwanisclub.org is shorter and friendlier. These steps make the custom domain automatically forward visitors to your number-based club site address.

The reason we use Cloudflare (a free service) is security. Browsers expect every site to load over HTTPS (the padlock). Without a security certificate, a visitor typing https://ourkiwanisclub.org could see a warning. Cloudflare provides that certificate for free and handles the forwarding.

Once it’s done, typing your custom domain (ourkiwanisclub.org) reliably lands visitors on your club site’s homepage. The web address (the part after the domain) is carried across too, so a shortcut like ourkiwanisclub.org/events will land on k12345.site.kiwanis.org/events — as long as a page actually exists at that address on your club site. If there’s no matching page, the visitor sees a “not found” error, so only share path shortcuts that match real pages on your site.

What visitors will see in the address bar: This setup forwards visitors to your club site, so once they arrive, the address bar will show your club site address (k12345.site.kiwanis.org), not your custom domain. Your custom domain works as the doorway — people can type it, print it on a flyer, or share it — but the kiwanis.org address is what appears once the page loads. This is normal and expected with the free forwarding method; it is not a mistake on your part. (Keeping your own domain visible in the address bar the whole time requires a different, paid setup that we don’t currently offer for club sites.)

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Before you begin

Have these two things ready:

• Your club site address — your club’s number followed by .site.kiwanis.org, for example k12345.site.kiwanis.org. (If you’re not sure of your number, look at the address bar when you’re logged into your club site.)
• Sign-in access to your domain registrar — wherever you bought the domain (GoDaddy, Dreamhost, Namecheap, etc.).

Throughout the steps below, you’ll replace two placeholders with your own details:

• YOURDOMAIN.org → your custom domain (e.g. custom-domain-name.org)
• kNNNNN.site.kiwanis.org → your club site address (e.g. k12345.site.kiwanis.org)

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Setting it up

Work through these steps in order. If you get stuck on any of them, reach out and we’ll guide you.

Step 1 — Create a free Cloudflare account

What is Cloudflare? Cloudflare is a free, widely-used internet service that millions of websites rely on for security and speed. You may not have heard of it because it works quietly in the background. We use it here for two things: it gives your custom domain a free security certificate (the padlock), and it forwards visitors from your custom domain to your club site. The account stays yours — Kiwanis never logs into it.

1. Go to the Cloudflare sign-up page.
2. Enter your email and a password and create the account.
3. Choose the Free plan. Do not pay for anything.

Step 2 — Add your domain to Cloudflare

1. After signing in, click Add a domain (or Add a site).
2. Type your custom domain — just YOURDOMAIN.org, with no www and no https://.
3. Select the Free plan when prompted and continue.
4. Cloudflare will scan your existing DNS records. Let it finish and continue.

Step 3 — Point your domain to Cloudflare (nameservers)

Cloudflare will show you two nameserver addresses (they look like xxxx.ns.cloudflare.com).

1. In a separate tab, sign in to your domain registrar (where you bought the domain).
2. Find the nameserver settings for your domain.
3. Replace the existing nameservers with the two Cloudflare nameservers shown on screen.
4. Save.

This change can take anywhere from a few minutes to a day to take effect. Cloudflare will email you when your domain is Active. Wait for that email before continuing. This is the step we most often help clubs through — registrar screens all look different.

Step 4 — Confirm the security certificate

Once your domain shows as Active:

1. In Cloudflare, open SSL/TLS → Overview.
2. Set the encryption mode to Full.
3. Cloudflare issues a free security certificate automatically, usually within 15 minutes. No action needed beyond waiting.

Step 5 — Set up the forwarding (Redirect Rule)

This is the step that sends visitors from your custom domain to your club site.

1. In Cloudflare, with your domain selected, go to Rules → Overview.
2. Click Create rule, then choose Redirect Rule.
3. Rule name: type Forward to club site.
4. Under When incoming requests match, choose Wildcard pattern.
5. In the Request URL box, type exactly this, replacing YOURDOMAIN.org with your domain:

https://*YOURDOMAIN.org/*

Example: https://*custom-domain-name.org/*

6. Under Then, set Type to Dynamic.
7. In the Expression / Target URL box, type exactly this, replacing kNNNNN.site.kiwanis.org with your club site address. Be sure to include the ${2} at the very end — that’s what carries the page path across:

https://kNNNNN.site.kiwanis.org/${2}

Example: https://k12345.site.kiwanis.org/${2}

8. Set Status code to 301.
9. Turn on Preserve query string if you see the option.
10. Click Deploy.

Step 6 — Test it

In your browser, type your custom domain (e.g. ourkiwanisclub.org) and press Enter. You should land on your club site, with a padlock in the address bar and no warning. (The address bar will switch to your club site address, k12345.site.kiwanis.org — that’s the forwarding working correctly.)

Try a path too. Pick a page you know exists on your club site (for example, if you have an About page at k12345.site.kiwanis.org/about, type ourkiwanisclub.org/about). It should land on that same page. (If you type a path that doesn’t exist on your site, you’ll get a “not found” error — that’s expected, not a setup problem.)

If you get a warning or an error, wait a little longer (certificates and DNS can take time to finish) and try again. Still stuck? Contact Club Sites support — send us the exact address you typed and what you saw.

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Watch the walkthrough

The video below walks through the Cloudflare signup and domain setup.

One difference from the video: in the older video, the final forwarding step is set up as a Page Rule with the destination ending in /. Cloudflare has since replaced Page Rules with Redirect Rules, and the current method is Step 5 above — note the ${2} on the end of the destination, which carries the page path across. Follow the written Step 5, not the video, for that part.

Questions?

Not sure whether your domain qualifies, or stuck on any step? Contact Club Sites support and we’ll walk through it with you.