A Guide to Giving Circles: How groups of friends are pooling resources for long-term change
Learn how to start a thriving giving circle, and join us for a đżPopcorn Q&A with two experts this Friday.
Millions of people have stepped up these past weeks to do extraordinary organizing for changeâat protests, at kitchen tables, over Twitter and Zoom.
If we want to truly dismantle our societyâs racist structures, we will have to sustain this work, continuing to organize and take action not just over the coming weeks, but over the coming years.
We bring you this new episode of the Get Together podcast with that understanding of our future in mind. Our team fast-tracked the editing so we could share it with you today.
Why? Because in this conversation, we break down a community-building format that Kevin and I deeply respect and suspect will bring inspiration in this moment: the giving circle.
What is a giving circle?
Giving circles are simple: People gather in groups to pool their money and then decide where it goes. Most circles have a guiding cause that members collectively care aboutâfor example, the African American Womenâs Giving Circle or the Funding Queerly Giving Circle.Â
â[Giving circles are] about everyday people coming together with their friends, with their families, with their community, with their colleagues and saying that they have a voice and that they want to use it in a constructive and powerful way in their communities.â
- Joelle Berman
Giving circles invert the traditional philanthropic model, wherein a rich person and their team determines where huge sums of money go. Instead, giving circles empower everyday people to do the research, make collective decisions, and direct their funds towards the changes they care about.
As a bonus, these circles often become little communitiesâpolitical homes evenâfor their members.
For those of us sitting with the responsibility of long-term, sustained action (đ), the giving circle is a great way to start structuring those efforts.
To learn more about how to start or join your own giving circle, listen to the new episode, then join us for a Popcorn Q&A this Friday. (See below).
Meet our giving circle experts
In our recent episode of the podcast, we took a deep-dive into Giving Circles. We spoke with a giving circle practitioner, LiJia Gong, and a giving circle expert, Joelle Berman, to learn the history and some tips for sparking and stoking a meaningful group of your own.Â
This Friday, you can ask Joelle and LiJia your own questions!Â
đ Mark your calendars
This Friday, June 12 at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET, weâll continue the conversation with Joelle and LiJia live using Substackâs discussion threads. Stay tuned: youâll receive an invitation to join us on Friday morning.
Curious about what đżPopcorn Q&A looks and feels like? Take a gander at our last Q&A with Casper ter Kuile, author of The Power of Ritual.
Not able to join? Leave your questions in the comments or reply to this email and we will bring them to the conversation Friday.
âš Highlights from LiJia & Joelleâs âGet Togetherâ Interview
These two women are bad*sses, and we know youâll enjoy the spirit and rigor of our conversation.Â
LiJia is a co-founder and member of a remarkable giving circle called Radfund. Radfundâs members channel money to folks in NYC organizing to challenge structural inequality and to fight for racial and economic justice. LiJia and a small group of friends started Radfund five years ago, and they have been thoughtful through each stage of its journey. Outside of Radfund, LiJia is an attorney who is currently making our justice system more just as a counsel over at the Public Rights Project. Before that she was also a senior legal Analyst for Elizabethâs Warren Senate campaign, a clerk, a law fellow, a board member, and a killer dancer.Â
Joelle was recently the founding Executive Director of Amplifier, which is a global network of 125+ giving circles inspired by Jewish values. From that position supporting so many different giving circles, she had a rare view of the ecosystem as a whole, and was able to pinpoint trends and best practices. (Shout out to Amplifier's founder, Felicia Herman, and Amplifier's current CEO, Liz Fisher, for their work continuing to spread the power of collective giving!)
Hereâs the advice they shared with us:
First step is to agree: âwhat do we want to put out into the world?â One of the earliest steps for any giving circle is determining the groupâs purpose. For LiJia, this meant having deep conversations about WHO: which organizers do they each admire, and what traits do they have in common? Radfundâs mission backs out from those insights. Joelle recommends a different process, asking questions like, âHow had group members been giving before? How do they want to give? What purpose do they see this group serving?â These questions pull out group values so that they can back into a mission based on real world examples.Â
Joyful giving and celebration is essential. A giving circleâs value to members is as much about the relationships they build together as it is about giving. There should be food, drinks, and dancing (if the mood is right) to celebrate what you're learning, the cause you're giving to, and the impact you're making. The more fun you have together, the more youâre likely to keep giving together.
Lean into the grassroots identity. These giving circles are not professional, polished mega-philanthropies. They are the opposite: grassroots, local, soulful. LiJia and Joelle encourage giving circles to reflect that character in the details of how they operate. For example, consider hand-writing and mailing checks to organizations instead of digital transfers. These small decisions bring intimacy to giving, an antidote to the anonymity of other philanthropy.Â
To get ready for đżPopcorn Q&A you can listen to the interview with LiJia and Joelle on our podcast.
Sending hope,
Bailey, Kevin, and Kai
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