Hi everyone- NOZA is thrilled to offer our blog readers another great series! Gretchen Horn has written an excellent two-part article on Giving Circles. I hope you all find this great information useful in your fundraising research. Please give us feedback on your thoughts and ideas.

Warm regards,
Jacqui Higgins
NOZA

By Gretchen Horn
Horn Research Services

The Concept Behind Giving Circles

Giving circles are a form of shared giving and community investment where individual donors are able to experience greater involvement in their philanthropy by combining their resources, networking with others who share similar giving ideas and making collective and informed fundraising decisions. The hands-on approach of giving circles is one of the fastest growing and widely diverse of all modern giving models.  By investing time and money, and pooling their resources, people who never considered themselves philanthropists are able to invest in social change and actively make a difference in their communities.

This type of philanthropic enterprise can range from informal groups of friends meeting to discuss how best to allocate their collective donations to very refined, structured and formal programs such as the Washington Womenade (www.washingtonwomenade.org), the Women Donors Network (www.womendonors.org), the Global Sojourns Giving Circle (www.globalsojourns.com) and Impact 100 (www.impact100.org), all regional or national organizations of "women that support and encourage members to use their wealth and influence in the service of progressive philanthropy to create social change". Although these are all examples of large, formal networks, giving circles usually start out as small, informal groups whose members are looking for ways learn more about philanthropy, leverage the impact of their donations, and connect with others who share a common interest in a social cause or issues facing their community. Giving circles allow for a more hands-on approach to fundraising in that the group’s members manage the funds and decide where and how the resources will be granted. Membership allows people to become educated on various subjects such as grantmaking, finances, community needs, philanthropic structure and volunteerism.

Giving circles are community organizations which allow members to pool their funds for the greatest impact, target causes and pressing social concerns, make educated granting decisions and become more deeply connected with the philanthropic process than the individual donor might be able to. Giving circles use a type of "venture philanthropy," which provides nonprofits with financial and intellectual capital, as well as human resources and community contacts. The concept behind giving circles, no matter what the size or level of formality, is that pooled giving has a larger impact on social change and making a difference in a community that is not possible through individual giving. Members are enthusiastic, engaged and interested in learning about new opportunities and challenges, building their communities, sharing their experiences and dollars, and developing as philanthropists. Giving circles offer members a chance to become passionately involved in something while learning, alongside the other members, about issues in their communities and making decisions that will have a real and lasting impact.

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[1] Taken from the Women Donors Network website: www.womendonors.org