Giving Circles: Beneficial To Women, Minorities, And To Us!

A recent report conducted by Jumpstart Labs concluded that Giving Circles have far larger numbers of women and minority participants than other forms of philanthropy. Due to their community oriented, low-pressure nature, Giving Circles tell people that it doesn’t matter if you are rich, poor, young, or old, exploring philanthropy can be rewarding, informative, and fun. Scheduling a wine and cheese night with your friends? Why not pool your money together and decide on a charity to donate it to? Rather than spending your evening gossiping, you are now using your time together in a way that both helps you and others. While philanthropy can often feel out of reach to some minority groups, Giving Circles are a good way to donate on your own terms with the safety of a community you know and trust.

If I were to make a list of all of my friends and how I am connected to them, I would find that the majority of my relationships are formed through my involvement in clubs and activities. Once I find something I am interested in, I migrate towards people who share that interest. Furthermore, once those people take an interest in something new, I am likely to explore that new realm as well. So what would be the impact of philanthropy being the basis for that club or activity? How would my world be influenced differently if I connected with the people in my life through a mutual desire to learn how to give? It is human nature to be drawn to the interests of those in our social circle; thus, Giving Circles encourage people to contribute to a cause by making it into a social activity. Rather than feeling lost and alone in your pursuit to learn about or give to philanthropy, Giving Circles urge you to incorporate your philanthropic journey into an activity you can do with your friends.

Last semester, I took a sociology class and spent the semester feeling very restless as we sat in a room in our comfortable, protected, privileged, university debating the degree to which racism exists. Instead of going into the world and doing something to solve the problems we discussed, we just sat there and argued with one another. And that was on a good day, on a bad day we sat there complacently as we watched the minutes tick by on the clock ignoring the immensely problematic social phenomena that were being discussed. Joining this class, I hoped to make up for the sociology class. I thought that if we were giving to real organizations I would not feel like I was just sitting in a room stroking my white middle class ego, but actually taking action to help others. However, I have still had times when I sit in this class and feel that being there, picking apart the philanthropy of others, is more of the same concept of convincing myself I am contributing to societal growth while actually just stroking my own ego. We spend the class time picking apart books written by people who, regardless of their flaws, devoted a large amount of time, money, and energy to making a difference instead of merely talking about making one. However, looking at our class as a Giving Circle has helped me see the merits of our discussions and the importance of philanthropy being a social activity. Unlike a Giving Circle, we did not all pool our money together to donate to a charity; however, we do learn about effective forms of philanthropy and we will collectively decide to whom we want to give the money. Throughout the process we will learn whose opinions with which we tend to side and with whom we tend to butt heads, we will learn how to begin the process of deciding we to allocate a given amount of money, and how a group of young adults can turn philanthropy into a social fad. As a group of young adults it can be hard to find a philanthropic organization that will give us any real power, but being a part of a Giving Circle like this class allows us to demonstrate what we know and how we can help regardless of our ages.