Giving Circles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Giving Circles are a form of philanthropy consisting of groups of individuals who pool their funds to donate to their communities and seek to increase their awareness and engagement in the process of giving. Through this process, they seek to impact their own communities or larger areas - possibly to global impacts. The circles can serve as a form of shared, or collective, giving in the context of community economic development or other social ventures.
Members of giving circles donate their own money, decide together where to give their money, and have some sort of social or educational interaction associated with the giving. Many circles, in addition to donating their money, also contribute their time and skills to supporting local causes.
Giving Circles as they currently manifest themselves are a new trend, but they are built on old traditions dating back hundreds of years to mutual aid societies and other forms of giving for the community. Several years ago, Giving Circles were predominantely composed of women. Women continue to make up the majority of today's Giving Circles - but today the make up of Circles are more diverse in race, age and gender.
The structure of the circles can be informal or formal. On the informal side, circles may vote and choose and organization to support and each member writes an individual checks. Formal circles may have their money housed at a local community foundation and have staff people that support the work of the circle or like in the case of Washington Women's Foundation, there may be several staff that work with the Giving Circle. Giving Circles range in size from a handful of members to several hundred.
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.
In a 2004 study, the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers' New Ventures in Philanthropy initiative identified approximately 400 Giving Circles in the U.S.. A survey of 61 circles found that they leveraged $32 million over through 2000-2005.
