Community Pulse: What is a giving circle?

A giving circle is a form of participatory philanthropy by a group of individuals who form a voluntary association to donate their money or time. The group then decides how to allocate these resources to charitable organizations or community projects.

Giving circles were begun in the 1990s, many of them housed at community foundations, and now number over 400.

Most giving circles are comprised of women, and the “100+ Women Who Care” model has been adopted across the country.

In addition to the 100+ Women Who Care of Grundy County, the Community Foundation of Grundy County also houses our Young Philanthropists, which are giving circles of students at four Grundy County high schools.

All giving circles operate the same way: members come to a gathering, put their money in a kitty, discuss charities, vote on a charity to receive that gathering’s kitty, and send one check to the charity. Each giving circle can design theirs to best fit their members and community.

For 100+ Women Who Care of Grundy County, we gather four times a year – once a quarter. We change the location and time so that we can accommodate the various schedules of the members. Sometimes we meet over lunch and sometimes after work, whether for dinner or cocktails.

We meet for only an hour – that’s our promise to the members. Members are welcome to stay and network, but the business portion takes less than an hour.

As the women gather, they contribute their money. For us, $100 = 1 vote, so one woman with $100 gets her own vote. Sometimes friends split the $100 to make it more affordable. Two friends putting in $50 each get to share one vote; four friends each putting in $25 get to share one vote. Women can bring cash or a check, or donate online to the 100+ Women Who Care Fund at http://cfgrundycounty.com

Each vote is invited to submit the names of three charities serving Grundy County. Those slips go into a hat and three are drawn. The women whose slips are drawn are invited to stand up and tell the group about one of the charities on their slip.

After the women hear about the three charities, each voter gets a slip to write their choice of the three charities to receive that gathering’s pool of money. The winner of that gathering’s pool of money is invited to the next gathering to update the women on how they used the donations.

The Community Foundation of Grundy County has been the administrative agency behind 100+ Women Who Care of Grundy County since inception. The women who served on our Board of Trustees started the conversation in 2012. It ebbed and flowed for a while, but didn’t gain traction.

We tried again in 2019 with new energy from Joan Eslinger and Julie Wilkinson, and we have been going strong ever since.

Devan Gagliardo, our Program Director, is the lead staff for all of our giving circles. For 100+ Women, she sets the dates and times, sends out invitations, collects the money, gets slips and supplies ready for each gathering, tracks the votes, sends charitable tax receipts, cuts the check to the charities, and answers any questions that the women may have.

Our Young Philanthropists giving circles are a bit different in that the students don’t contribute the money – the Foundation budgets each year for each school’s circle to have $5,000 to grant to the causes that they care about. High school students have enough fundraising to do in their other clubs that we’d rather supply the money so that the students can focus on the quality of life in Grundy County.

Each school is invited to design their Young Philanthropists in a way that best fits their students’ schedules. For the most part, Devan begins meeting with them monthly starting in the fall, talking about philanthropy and charity. She then polls the students on the issues that they care about and from there invites the charities doing that work to come present to the students over the winter.

In the spring, the Young Philanthropists meet to review the charities who presented to them and decide how to grant their $5,000 budget. This decision is totally up to the students – sometimes they award a few large grants; sometimes they award many small grants to more charities.

We then host a grant awards dinner in May each year where the students present their grants – all of which are a surprise to the charities. No announcements are made prior to the dinner.

Since inception, the 100+ Women Who Care of Grundy County have awarded $80,255 to charities who serve Grundy County, and our Young Philanthropists have granted $150,000 to Grundy causes that the students care about.

If you would like to join 100+ Women Who Care of Grundy County, our next gathering is Tuesday, July 8th. If you want to make sure your high school student is a member of their school’s Young Philanthropists, please contact Devan for that school’s YP schedule. Her email is devan@cfgrundycounty.com and our phone is 815-941-0852.

There’s always room for more giving circles – whether a group of friends or neighbors, a group at work, a men’s group, a town-wide group, a club, or even a large family – we are here to assist if you’d like.

We know one reason that people are hesitant to join a giving circle is because they don’t feel they know enough about the charities serving Grundy County. But that’s also a great reason to join a giving circle – you learn from others in the circle about the causes that they care about. We can also share information about the area nonprofits because of our grants program and our leadership in the Grundy County Interagency Council, the Behavioral Health Alliance, the Birth to Five Network, and the Senior Network.

Giving circles also don’t have to be big and splashy. We work with many donors over the years who like to fly below the radar, so we can help you design a giving circle that fits you and your friends.

We look forward to working with you!