User:Chefmikesf/sandbox/Giving circle

A giving circle is a form of participatory philanthropy where groups of individuals donate their own money or time to a pooled fund. They decide together where to give these away to individuals, nonprofits, or community projects, seeking to increase their awareness of and engagement in the issues covered by the nonprofits or community project. In many circles, members donate their money and also contribute their time and skills to support local causes. The tradition dates back hundreds of years to mutual aid societies and other forms of communal giving. The practice has been used by various groups in the United States, which may server identity-based or broad audiences.

A giving circle network is an organization that serves as a connector to giving circles, providing resources, guidelines and networking opportunities for multiple giving circles who may have shared interests.

Structure and function


A giving circle is a form of participatory philanthropy where groups of individuals donate their own money or time to a pooled fund. They decide together where to give these away to individuals, nonprofits, or community projects, seeking to increase their awareness of and engagement in the issues covered by the nonprofits or community project. In many circles, members donate their money and also contribute their time and skills to support local causes. A giving circle is a form of collective giving to mutually approved causes and organizations. They may consist of self-organized small groups, formal membership-based organizations or larger organizations with professional paid staff. In all cases, the organization structures donation amounts for members in varying increments. Roughly 85% of giving circles have a minimum donation, while some ask for donations above $1,000. Members typically pool equal amounts ranging from $50-$5,000 except for some small groups who leave donations to the sole discretion of the donor.

Giving circles provide community engagement through pooled gifts and donations. Members are often made up of people who already live in or have ties to the communities in which they support, giving them insight into the specific needs of that community. These factors enable contributions to hyper-local causes which may be overlooked by bigger nonprofits and allow donors who may have less discretionary income to combine their donations with others to make a bigger impact.

The structure of the circles can be informal or formal. On the informal side, circles may vote and choose an organization to support and each member writes an individual check. Formal circles may have their money housed at a local community foundation and have staff that support the work of the circle. Giving circles can range in size from a handful of members to several hundred. Formal organizations also known as sponsored or institutional giving circles are structured similarly to traditional membership societies with a board of directors or leadership team, committees, and support staff.

Grassroots circles are typically run by the members and self-educated. Individual donors who join or form a giving circle typically seek to build community within their circle through social events, in addition to the economic impacts of the groups.

Early history
The current model of giving circles is a relatively new trend, but it is built on traditions dating back hundreds of years to mutual aid societies and other forms of communal giving. In the United States, giving circles were initially composed of women; they are now more diverse in race, age and gender, although women continue to make up the majority of members.

Indigenous African philanthropy, also referred to as ancient giving circles, took the form of rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) and has been documented in Nigeria and Kenya as a source of financing for social development. An esusu, as it is called by the Yoruba in Nigeria, is a communal fund in which a fixed contribution sum has been decided upon and paid into at a specific time and place. It is then distributed in a lump sum to each member in a rotation to use however they see fit. Examples of this system have also been documented as susu in Trinidad and harambees in Kenya.

During the time of slavery in the United States, freedmen and freedwomen pooled resources, then used the money to purchase enslaved freedom. Free African Society was established in 1787 and was a formalized mutual aid society and early predecessor to the giving circle model. In 1793, the organization mobilized funds to support victims of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of Philadelphia.

The early and mid-1800s marked a time in United States history where voluntary social, civic, political and professional associations began forming and growing. This idea, as noted by French civil servant, Alexis de Tocqueville, was that groups who shared common interests could unite and influence important social and philanthropic issues facing their families and communities.

As the 1800s progressed into the early 1900s, African American philanthropists collectively contributed millions of dollars that were used to create educational initiatives, build schools and support their own community programs. Madam C.J. Walker, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first self-made American woman millionaire, was one of them. Walker’s philanthropy evolved from the sharing and resource-pooling she utilized as a washerwoman and helping with the church collection plates, to becoming a large philanthropic donor and ultimately employing reportedly 20,000 agents of working-class black women to assist in her efforts.

History 1990-2000
In 1990, Peggy Saika founded Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP), an organization that includes a giving circle network focused on building infrastructure for bridging philanthropy and Asian Pacific American communities. By 1995, there were 50 giving circles in the United States. One of which, was the Washington Women’s Foundation, founded by Colleen S. Willoughby, Rhoda Altom, Suzanne Lile Hunter, Anne V. Farrell, and Faye Sarkowsky that same year. In the first two months of its inception, the Washington Women’s Foundation had 100 women members.

In Cincinnati, Ohio, Three Generations Circle was formed in 1999 by Sondra Shaw-Hardy with 16 friends each giving $1,000. The group gave its first grants in 2001: $8,000 went to support the Women’s Resource Center’s Helen’s House shelter and another $8,000 went to three other community projects.

History 2000-2015
The women’s giving circle group Impact100 formed in 2001. With this model, members give at least $1,000 annually and chapters are typically composed of at least 100 women, making sizeable contributions of at least $100,000 to the organizations who receive the grants.

In 2003, Darryl Lester and Athan Lindsay received funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and various sponsors to begin work with young African American adults in the South. These individuals organized into giving circles to invest their time, talent, and treasures back into their communities in an effort to address issues of race and equity. Linetta J. Gilbert was an early advocate for giving circles in communities of color in the US south through Ford Foundation’s Community Philanthropy, Race and Equity in the American South (CPREAS) initiative. There are now more than a dozen African-American giving circles that are members of Community Investment Network.

A 2005 study at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, found that giving circles generally bring both long-time and new philanthropists to organized philanthropy. For both groups, participation seems to increase levels of giving while bringing "new money" to the nonprofit sector; especially to small and locally based organizations. Members also seem to learn about and give to organizations and individuals, and in areas of interest, they most likely would not have given to otherwise. In addition, members are more thoughtful, focused and strategic in their personal giving because of educational experiences in the giving circle.

In Jackson, Michigan, Karen Dunigan formed the first chapter of 100 Women Who Care in November 2006. Dunigan invited 100 women to a meeting and asked them to each give $100. Today, there are hundreds of chapters under the umbrella organization 100 Who Care Alliance, with chapters of women, men, teens, and mixed groups.

In a 2007 study, the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers' New Ventures in Philanthropy initiative identified approximately 400 giving circles in the United States, more than double the number from two years earlier. A survey of 160 circles, published in 2008, found they had leveraged nearly $100 million, $13 million of this in 2006 alone. Nearly 12,000 people took part in the 160 giving circles surveyed. Nearly half of circles have male participants, and the popularity of giving circles is also growing among racial, ethnic and tribal communities as well as in the LGBTQIA2S+ community. One year later, Tim Hwang and friends started the Awesome Foundation to pool funds for projects by individuals.

The number of giving circles in Asia is growing. The first study to describe and document Asian giving circles was published in 2013 by Dr. Rob John at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School.

History 2016-present
By 2016, a study conducted by the Collective Giving Research Group titled, "The Landscape of Giving Circles/Collective Giving Groups in the US" found there were more than 1,600 giving circles in the United States with 150,000 members across all 50 states. Their donations totaled roughly $1.29 billion since the organizations were founded. This growth was the catalyst for giving circle networks to convene and co-design an infrastructure organization. A 2019 study published by the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy showed that 20 million fewer Americans were donating to charity, resulting in a 13% decline in individual giving. To reverse the decline, leaders of several giving circles and giving circle networks received a seed grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Representatives from Amplifier, Philanos, the Asian Women’s Giving Circle, the Latino Community Foundation, and the Community Investment Network then collaborated to co-design a group to support new and existing giving circles called Philanthropy Together. Philanthropy Together was formed as a five-year initiative, which launched in April 2020, to increase the number of giving circles recorded in 2016 from 1,600 to 3,000 by the year 2025, with a collective donation amount $1 billion dollars from 350,000 people. In 2021, Philanthropy Together partnered with Grapevine, a giving circle technology platform, to create a Global Giving Circle Directory, which now serves as the most up-to-date research on the number of giving circles.

Giving circle networks
A giving circle network is an organization that serves as a connector to giving circles, providing resources, guidelines and networking opportunities for multiple giving circles who may have shared interests.

Examples of giving circle networks

 * Amplifier Giving is the first concerted effort to network Jewish giving circles, catalyze the creation of new giving circles, educate circle members on best practices in philanthropy, and create a platform to connect NGOs and Jewish giving circles to each other efficiently and effectively. Amplifier collaborates with other organizations in the field including Honeycomb, a teen philanthropy program with giving circles housed in the Jewish Funders Network.
 * Social Venture Partners was founded by Paul Brainerd. This group focused on applying long-term funding strategies that project a non-profit’s impact five to seven years into the future to ensure maximum benefits for the nonprofit, and matching appropriate volunteers with the organizations area of need.
 * In 2006, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) established a giving circle movement that has resulted in the distribution of over $2.2 million to Asian American communities across the United States.
 * In 2012, the Latino Community Foundation launched the first Latino Giving Circle Network in the United States. As of August 2022, there are over 500 members in this network, which focuses on investing in Latino-led organizations in California.
 * Together Women Rise is a giving circle network headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina with chapters in other parts of the United States, which raises monthly for international charities that support women and girls facing extreme challenges in developing countries.
 * Future Now Fund, renamed The States Project in 2020, is a political action committee (PAC), giving circle network that helped organize 25 giving circles.
 * In 2021, the American Muslim Community Foundation, the only foundation hosting giving circles that focus on the American Muslim community, distributed nearly $1.3 million to more than 150 charities. The American Muslim Community Foundation hosts six other giving circles including the American Muslim Women’s Giving Circle.

Broad audience
Broad audience giving circles focus on missions like social justice, workplace discrimination, human rights, and animal rights.


 * The Kew Giving Circle in Kew, southwest London, started meeting in January 1999 and is still active. It is the first recorded giving circle in the United Kingdom.
 * Based in Austin, Texas, Legacy Collective launched in 2015 to help families, businesses, and nonprofits survive financial hardship. During Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, Legacy Collective gave $577,500 in grants, including a $127,500 grant to the Sustainable Food Center to support local farmers. They also have $100,000 to Feeding Texas to support local food banks.

Identity-based
Approximately 60% of giving circles in the United States are considered identity-based. They represent women, minorities, religious groups, youth groups, LGBTQIA2S+, and more.

Faith-based
Faith-based giving circles like Mother Teresa Women’s Giving Circle, JewGood Harford, Ummah Giving Circle, and Tikkun Giving Circle, support causes and issues that serve the respective religious groups.

Women's groups
Women’s groups Impact Austin, Sisterhood of Philanthropists Impacting Needs (SPIN), Women’s Impact Fund, and Women for Social Innovation support women’s issues as well as provide an educational framework to recruit new female philanthropists and expand existing philanthropic groups.

LGBTQIA2S+ groups
Data released in 2018 showed that for every $100 awarded to philanthropic foundations in the United States, roughly 28 cents went to LGBTQIA2S+ groups.


 * Giving circles like Beyond Two Cents, Kavod, Lacuna Giving Circle, and The Sex Worker Giving Circle support causes for demographic groups within the LGBTQIAS2+ community.

Race/Ethnicity focus
Race/ethnicity identity-focused giving circles use their donations to serve communities of color in matters of inclusivity, social justice, labor rights, and women’s rights.


 * Founded in 2004, The African American Giving Circle of the Washington Area Women's Foundation has awarded over $120,000 in grants to community-based organizations in Washington, D.C. serving African American women and girls.
 * The Asian Women Giving Circle, founded by Hali Lee in 2005 to support arts and cultural projects led by Asian-American women, takes a different approach. This 25-member group has a minimum $2,500 annual contribution; each member can raise those funds or donate them herself.
 * Based in San Mateo County, California, Peninsula Latina Giving Circle (PLGC) formed in 2014 to fund local issues including early childhood education, mental health, and social justice. As of April 2022, PLGC has awarded more than $150,000 in grants to organizations supporting women, girls and families.