On Giving Circles

For the last two years, I have been a part of a giving circle with a bunch of my college friends. Each month, we hop on a Zoom call to chat, catch up on each other's lives, and then the presentation begins. We go from teasing each other with jokes made when we were 18-year-olds to learning about the specific cause and non-profit organization that has been chosen for the month.

And yes, the moment when the selected organization is revealed feels just like this:

In our first season (2021 to 2022), we donated to eight non-profit organizations:

• Mannahatta Fund
• Fund Texas Choice
• RIP Medical Debt
• Mary's Place
• Coalition for the Homeless
• Chicago Recovery Alliance
• PASE
• Trevor Project

During our second season (2022 - 2023), we donated to 10 non-profit organizations:

• Center for Black Educator Development
• Kawerak
• Williams Institute at UCLA
• LEAP NYC
• APNA Brooklyn
• Landmine Relief Fund
• Apex for Youth
• Bronx Green Machine
• Hawai'i Community Foundation
• Hope Chicago
• Washington Douglass Chorale

We are in our third season (2024 - 2025), and we have already donated to organizations tackling a wide range of critical topics like food security, LGBTQ+ protections, civil / immigration rights, environment, and more.

Giving circles, in one form or another, have been around for hundreds of years. At its core, a group of people come together, pool their funds, and decide how to allocate the pooled capital.

This model of collective capital allocation exists across the globe with slight variations. Whether they are called ROSCAS, ASCAS, savings groups, village savings and loans associations (VSLAs), tandas, gehs, or SHGs, people come together, put their money into a collective pot¹, and decide how to use those funds. Giving circles are unique in that instead of the group's members saving or borrowing from the group, they are pooling their funds to donate to different impact causes.

There are essentially a few variables to consider:

• Pooling Frequency: How often do you pool funds? (money comes in)

• Donation Frequency: How often do you donate the funds? (money goes out)

• Selection Process: How do you choose where to donate the funds? There are typically two methods: Rotate (each member takes turns picking a cause and organization for the group to donate to) or Vote (people suggest organizations, then the group votes on which one(s) to support).

• Donation Amount: How much is each individual contributing each cycle?

Our giving circle looks like this:

• Pooling Frequency: monthly

• Donation Frequency: monthly

• Selection Process: rotate

• Donation Amount: $100 per person (and when we can take advantage of any matching funds, we do that too!)

I love our giving circle for a bunch of reasons, but here are my top three.

It's an excuse to get together with your friends and have conversations that go beyond the usual shenanigans. Each month, we learn more about different causes and organizations that matter to each person. And all too often, you see a direct link between a person's story and the cause and organization that has been nominated. When it feels like your group chats are just memes and old jokes, it is refreshing and life giving to have deeper, slower, more heartfelt conversations with old friends.

It helps you learn about causes and organizations you typically wouldn’t have found on your own. I have a hunch that more people would love to donate more and more often, but they often get stuck in not knowing who to donate to. By coming together as a group, everyone benefits from each person’s journey of selecting a cause and organization and can learn faster. The broad range of organizations that are selected is a feature, not a bug of our giving circle.

You start thinking about your own giving plan and how you want to show up as a good neighbor. Having a monthly cadence to learn about different organizations and causes establishes a great rhythm for reflection and consideration. But boy, you definitely feel a certain pressure when it is your turn to present to the group. I’ve found that this small deadline is just the right amount of pressure that I need to get over the hump of wanting to donate and be more involved to actually doing it.

I know that a lot of people want to donate more and more often, but may not know where to begin. I think starting a giving circle with a group of friends may be a great way to just get started. I guarantee that you and your friends will surprise each other. There are a bunch of resources out there, and I'm happy to help as well.

A few parting thoughts:

1. Donate to these organizations. They are all doing incredible work, and we are proud to have selected them. And for my onchain / crypto / web3² friends, you can donate to all of the organizations grouped by season (thank you Splits and Endaoment for making this so easy). For season 1, you can send funds to 0x1AB9938B1503d7EB7DD45833449C4Ea04a4B5146. For season 2, you can send funds to 0x61659C08CCcCc373C1f120B34eD31910E8C586DD.

2. Donate with us. If you'd like to donate alongside our giving circle, please reach out. We'll share how you can do that.

3. Join or start a giving circle for at least one season. It is one of those no-regret moves.

4. Learn more about giving circles. Philanthropy Together has assembled a bunch of fantastic resources.