28. How to start a giving circle

Here’s today’s listener letter:

Recently I heard someone mention a "giving circle." It sounded like a way to give money with my friends. What is it and how do I know if I should start one?

Giving Circles are groups of people who pool their money and decide where they want to donate it. You can be friends or coworkers or neighbors. Or you might be invited into a giving circle with people you don’t know yet like with The Philanthropy Connection in Boston. They have different amounts that you can sign up to donate over the course of a year and then you are put in a group of women and you decide together where to donate the money. There’s a lot of enrichment that goes into empowering the givers to learn more about the organizations doing work in their community and how they can make an impact. Really nice concept.

You could join an organization like The Philanthropy Connection if you’re in Boston, or similar organizations wherever you are in the country. Or you can start your own.

There are lots of advantages to giving with a group rather than giving on your own. I get a lot of questions about how to remember to donate, if you’re doing it with a group, odds are, you’re not going to be able to forget because you have built -in accountability buddies. Another benefit is that you will probably be exposed to organizations you never even thought about as other members of your giving circle suggest them. Your money will go farther as a group. And I think it’s just fun to do something like this with friends.

First thing is to come up with your list of who you want to do this with. Start small to make your life easier especially as you get used to this. If it goes well, you can keep it going and add more people. I would probably include 5 to 10 people at most if it is your first time setting up a giving circle.

Second thing is to decide if you want everyone to donate the same amount or leave it flexible. The benefit of leaving it flexible is that it is more accessible regardless of everyone’s current finances. The benefit of setting a fixed donation amount of each giver might be to make sure everyone is participating equally, although I’m not sure I really believe this because $100 for one person might carry a completely different gravity compared to another person. So, up to you, don’t overthink this, just pick flexible or fixed. Remember, you can always change things up after you try this once. It’s not a tattoo LOL

Third thing to decide is where to donate the money. I would encourage you to have each member of your giving circle suggest their top idea. Give people a short amount of time to do their research and present their nomination. And then to have the group vote.

That’s really about it. If you like this experience, you can make it a regular thing. Maybe you all meet to do this once a year. Every Christmas. Every MLK Day. Whatever feels meaningful to your group.

I know someone that has baked in a giving circle into bookclub. So, every month the bookclub meets and everyone ponies up some amount of money, I want to say it is $25, and then they take turns picking where the money gets donated each month.

Imagine how great it must be for this group of friends to be able to look back at the end of each year and know that they have donated thousands of dollars to various organizations that they care about. Love that.

If you end up giving this a try, please do get in touch and let me know how it goes.

The Philanthropy Connection
https://thephilanthropyconnection.org/

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