How to Start Your Own Giving Circle
About the growing giving circle movement and how you can get involved.
One of the best ways to make an impact in your community, or generally in areas that you care about, is to start a giving circle. What's a giving circle? It's simply bringing a group of people together to commit to giving collectively to causes that the group votes to support.
The best part about these giving circles is that they’re helping to provide more unrestricted funding to smaller, more local, more diverse nonprofits. For example, Vocal Minority, a group that was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area, is focused on supporting social justice charities with operating budgets under $5 million.
How can you start your own giving circle?
Step 1: Find a small group of friends, family members, coworkers, neighbors, or others who are interested in making a difference together.
Step 2: Work with this group to discuss how you’d like to run your giving circle. Here's one quick example Every group member commits to donating $25 or more each month to address emerging issues in the world today. Each month, individuals can submit charities for the group to discuss, and at the end of the month you vote on the charity to collectively support.
Step 3: When you've got your core team on board and have decided your structure, start your giving circle! Get your core group to make their donations and start spreading the word. Ask each member to invite a few friends and consider sharing on social media.
Step 4: After your group's donations are in, start the nomination or voting process that you’ve agreed to. Direct the funding to the organization and feel great about what you've accomplished.
Step 5: Repeat!
Groups like this have been able to donate thousands of dollars each month to help causes in their community. When they wake up and read the news, they know that they're playing a small part in impacting and improving the world around them.