Philanthropy is often pictured as a single wealthy donor writing a big check. But one of the fastest-growing trends in charitable giving looks nothing like that. It looks like a room full of neighbors, coworkers, and friends, each giving what they can, pooling their money and judgment to fund the causes they care about most. That’s a giving circle.
The Basics: What Is a Giving Circle?
A giving circle is a group of individuals who pool their charitable dollars, then decide together how to grant that money to nonprofits and community projects. IThe members aren’t just donors — they’re also the grantmakers, researching organizations, discussing priorities, and deciding who gets funded.
What makes the model powerful isn’t just the money. It’s a few key features:
- Shared decision-making. No single donor calls the shots. Members bring their own perspectives and networks to the table
- Lower barriers to entry. Because gifts are pooled, someone who couldn’t fund a $10,000 grant alone can still be part of awarding one.
- Community and connection. Giving circles build relationships among members, not just between donors and nonprofits. People join for the mission and often stay for the community.
- Local knowledge. Many giving circles are made up of people who live in or near the communities they fund, so grants tend to reflect real, on-the-ground needs rather than a generic wish list.
. Circles today organize around every imaginable identity and cause: shared heritage, profession, neighborhood, even shared windfall. What unites them is the practice of giving collectively rather than individually.
Why the Model Works
- A group of people decide their community’s needs are worth pooling resources for.
- They give collectively rather than individually, multiplying their impact.
- They stay involved in deciding where the money goes, not just handing it off.
- They keep the giving close to home, funding organizations doing visible, local work.
It turns donors into grantmakers and turns “giving back” into something people do together.
Giving Circles in the Ohio Valley
The Community Foundation for the Ohio Valley,has three distinct giving circles and funds, each putting this same model to work in a different corner of community life:
- The Women’s Giving Circle pools contributions from women in the community to fund organizations serving women and girls across the region, from STEM programs and economic empowerment to safety and housing support.
- Breaking Barriers for a Better Community (BBBC) brings together local men focused on removing employment barriers and building a skilled workforce in the greater Wheeling area.
- The Belmont County Enrichment Fund (BCEF), born in 2013 from landowners sharing mineral-rights income, grants exclusively to organizations serving Belmont County, Ohio, has distributed well over half a million dollars to date.
Giving circles thrive wherever people show up with their dollars, time, and perspective on what their community needs most.
Get Involved
If you’d like to learn more about joining one of these giving circles, or about applying for a grant, reach out to the Community Foundation for the Ohio Valley at 304-242-3144 or visit cfov.org.
