Giving circles serve as a valuable source of funding for nonprofits, both small and large. Giving circles are groups of individuals who come together to pool their money, non-cash giving, time, volunteer hours and other resources. Once the financial and other resources are pooled, these items are given to 501c3 charitable organizations in the form of grants and contributions.
Within the nonprofit and foundation community, it is understood and agreed that funding provided by giving circles is a big amount. Just how big funding circles are is not known as many of the funding circles are informal. However, based on our research, we estimate that there are greater than 1,000 giving circles in the US and collectively, they have given in excess of $200 million. You can find giving circles in all 50 states.
Giving circles tend to have characteristics that vary in many different ways:
Formal or informal. Some giving circles have been set up as legal entities, with a board of directors and formal operating procedures. Other giving circles are less formal, meeting periodically for a breakfast or lunch, and discussing charities to fund.
Big or Small. Some giving circles are large with millions of dollars in assets, while others are much smaller with several thousands of dollars in assets.
Members’ Financial Status. Giving circles may or may not require its members to give a minimum donation to the circle. And when a minimum giving is required, it is often a very small amount, such as $250 per year. However, I have read of one giving circle where each member was required to give at least $1 million to the giving circle.
Members’ Involvement. If your charitable organization does medical missionary work in less developed countries, it is possible that you may come across a doctor or dentist in one of these giving circles who want to go to some of these countries with your organization and provide medical or dental work for the local population in those countries.
Other benefits that a supporting giving circle bring to a nonprofit:
Exposure for the 501c3 charitable organization
More volunteers for the nonprofit
Access to a wide and growing circle of funders
Access to Expertise (operation, fundraising, financial management)
The reasons individuals join giving circles varies, but all are positive. One of the core functions of giving circles are to provide financial support to 501c3 public charities. However, members of giving circles usually want to do a little more. Members of giving circles want to get involved, be involved and help. They want to help individuals; they want to help support certain causes; they want to help the community. They want to provide financial support. And the members of giving circles want to do all these things, but do not want to run a 501c3 nonprofit organization. The members of the giving circles would much rather serve in a supporting role.
Nonprofit organizations can benefit tremendously from the help, support and assistance of the members of the giving circles. Small nonprofits especially need this assistance as they most often cannot afford to hire paid employees to provide some of the expertise required by the organization.
How to find giving circles:
Ask friends and families. Just explain the idea and concept to some of your friends and families; you’ll be surprised to find that one of your close contacts may already be a member of a giving circle.
Search online. Do a Google or Yahoo search. Some of the local circles with websites will probably show up in the listing.
Speak with managers of other nonprofits. Giving circles are not new and many nonprofit managers are already using them as a means of fundraising and expertise.
Go to local nonprofit events, seminars and workshops. At these meetings, ideas flow and discussions brew. If you go to a few of these events, you will very likely come across individuals who are active in giving circles.
Use the social networks – Facebook, Twitter and LinkIn. Someone in your social network most likely knows a lot about giving circles. If you just put the idea out there and what you are looking for, people are very willing to share information and knowledge.