Optimist International replaced travel-gated convention training and an open public document library with two branded Tovuti sites. The change helped the global service organization reach every member at no travel cost while moving course creation from Dizi to WayPoints.
Optimist International is a global nonprofit service organization dedicated to bringing out the best in youth, community, and ourselves. With more than 2,000 clubs, 50,000+ volunteers, and members across 24 countries, the organization needed a better way to deliver consistent training at scale.
Before Tovuti, officer training happened live at International Convention. That meant travel, lodging, food costs, and limited access. Only about 1% of members could attend, leaving thousands of club officers without standardized training.
With Tovuti, Optimist International moved required officer training online, created a branded Optimist Institute, secured member-only documents behind a login, and expanded the platform into a learning hub for leadership development, professional growth, webinars, guides, recordings, and more.
About Optimist International
Established in 1919 and headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, Optimist International is a nonprofit global service club organization dedicated to “bringing out the best in youth, community, and ourselves.”
With their upbeat attitude, Optimist Club members help empower young people through scholarship contests, oratorical competitions, golf programs, and community activities.
The organization runs on more than 2,000 local clubs and tens of thousands of volunteers across 24 countries. Together, Optimists conduct service projects and serve millions of young people every year.
The challenge
Only ~1% of members could be reached, and internal documents were public
Serving millions of youth a year is no simple task. Traditionally, Optimist International trained its club officers, including presidents, secretaries, and treasurers, live at its annual International Convention.
But the convention required travel, lodging, and food, so only about 1% of total membership attended. Roughly 250 club officers were trained live each year, leaving the organization with no way to reach everyone or deliver consistent, standardized training across thousands of clubs.
Internal materials were a second problem. Documents, programs, and forms lived on the public Optimist International website, each behind a button anyone could click. Any visitor could access everything, with no way to keep member-only content behind a login.
Tracking the Personal Growth & Involvement and Professional Development programs added more friction. A mail-in paper “passport” was hard to verify, and printing and mailing certificates by hand consumed days of admin work every month.
Two branded sites, one Optimist International
Optimist International implemented Tovuti LMS and rebranded it as the Optimist Institute, applying their own colors and a custom mascot. Required officer trainings moved online, putting standardized training within reach of 100% of members.
They built interactive courses for annual officer training and new club training, then added a second Tovuti site: a password-protected member instance with the same login, look, and feel as the Institute.
Internal documents, programs, and forms that once sat open on the public website now sit securely behind a login.
“This is the ninth LMS I’ve worked with and the seventh I’ve started from the ground up. I’ve never had it this easy.”
Heather Myers
Director, Optimist Institute
Many of the Institute’s users are older adults. According to Myers, they have faced no learning curve. Earlier systems needed code just to format an image or upload non-SCORM content.
“On other systems, just to format a picture I’d have to figure out which piece of code to change. Having a user-friendly LMS is such a breath of fresh air. I tell everybody that Tovuti is so easy to use.”
Heather Myers
Director, Optimist Institute
Institute success leads to expansion
As demand grew beyond officer training, the Institute became one hub for everything: the Optimist Leadership Academy, the Personal Growth & Involvement and Professional Development programs, inspirational videos, quick reference guides, webinar recordings, and International Convention handouts and keynote recordings.
The Optimist Leadership Academy is one example. Once a one-day program, it now runs over nine months, with ten gated stages that learners progress through. The invite-only path combines self-paced modules with live webinars from outside experts.
“To bring in the number of guest speakers we host in our webinars to our convention would cost thousands of dollars. With Tovuti, we can bring in as many speakers as we’d like, and people can revisit recordings later, at no additional cost.”
Heather Myers
Director, Optimist Institute
WayPoints keeps a team of one ahead of demand
Interest in courses has exploded, with members constantly requesting new training. Working as a team of one, Heather first built content with Dizi, Tovuti’s legacy content tool, then moved course creation over to WayPoints.
The newer tool produces richer lessons, narration, and built-in assessments from a topic she types in or a document she uploads.
- No subject expertise needed. Type a topic and get a course draft in minutes.
- Less research time. Myers says the workflow saves weeks of research alone.
- Faster launches. Scheduled to build 12 courses in a month, she launched all 12 in days.
Bulk user groups boost organizational efficiency
Managing a global volunteer base as a team of one could be overwhelming. Bulk user groups make it effortless: Heather sends targeted training reminders to specific groups, and quickly weeds out non-active members. That keeps Optimist International’s programs from being used for free by non-members, and keeps the member list accurate.
“For me to go through 3,600 people on a regular basis would be extremely time-consuming. Tovuti makes it so easy.”
Heather Myers
Director, Optimist Institute
The results: from 1% of members to all of them
Officer training is now online, required, and consistent across every club, reaching 100% of members, up from the ~1% who attended convention live. The Institute has become the organization’s learning and development hub.
- Reached 100% of members with required officer training, up from the ~1% at convention
- Trained ~2,500 officers in the 2024-25 Optimist year, versus roughly 250 before
- Delivered standardized training at $0 travel cost, with no convention travel, lodging, or food
- Secured internal documents behind a password-protected member site
- Centralized programs, videos, guides, and recordings into one hub
- Moved course authoring from Dizi to WayPoints, adding richer lessons and assessments
“It’s great to see this growth and how active our members are, because that means they’re engaged with our mission. I’ve used a lot of LMS systems and Tovuti is hands down the best.”
Heather Myers
Director, Optimist Institute
Future plans: new revenue streams and more
Optimist International is drafting plans for a separately branded student institute, delivering leadership development to the students it serves, kept entirely separate from the volunteer instance but managed from one place.
Due to its success, the organization is also considering opening the Institute to the public through a monetized subscription plan on a third instance, with funds supporting scholarships and club dues. With student safety a priority, Tovuti’s platform keeps each audience fully isolated while content can be duplicated and managed centrally.
