Guide to Giving Circles: Pooling resources to support change and build community 🤲 Joelle Berman and LiJia Gong

Giving circles are a simple but powerful community-building format. Groups of people get together to pool their money, then direct it towards issues they collectively care about–think Queer Youth Fund or the African American Giving Circle. Called “participatory philanthropy,” giving circles are our chance to invert the traditional philanthropic model, wherein a rich person with a famous name determines where huge funds go. Here, everyday people are researching, learning and deciding together to impact change. And often, groups that give together often end up forming their own little communities through their efforts. Today, we’ve put together an episode with two experts that will share what it takes to start and sustain a giving circle.