COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—The party at Mary Ellis Smith’s house is in full swing. The wine is flowing. Salads and bread appear on the kitchen island. The 10 guests, all women, breeze in and out of the kitchen, chatting about everyday things: kids, grandkids, husbands, work, vacations, health, friends. Eventually, they all grab a plate, dish out the food and gather on Smith’s deck.
What sets this soiree apart from your typical dinner party isn’t obvious until the meal is finished. Out come the checkbooks, and everyone forks over $35 to $50—not for the food or the wine, but for a pot of money that will be split among several nonprofits in early 2012.
It’s a monthly routine for the Giving Hearts Dinner Club, one of at least six so-called giving circles in the Pikes Peak region and hundreds nationwide that have been created to leverage individual donations and benefit nonprofits and community organizations.
“It adds up,” said Patty Clark, who founded Giving Hearts in 2006, and then, to keep it from getting too big, started another in her University Park neighborhood about four years ago. “It doesn’t seem like a lot, but by the end of the year, you have a fair sum of money,” she said.
Giving circles have surged in popularity in the last 10 to 15 years, according to the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers. A 2007 study sponsored by the organization turned up more than 400 giving circles in the U.S., up from 200 in 2004. More recent estimates put the number at about 800.
The 2007 study also collected detailed information from 160 of the groups, and found that they had given $13 million in grants in 2006 alone, and more than $64 million collectively through the years.
Another report conducted by the forum, along with the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, found that giving-circle members tend to give more money in a more strategic way than other donors; give to a greater number of organizations, especially those that are not high-profile; and feel more connected to their community and its needs.
Kathy Holmes has experienced that heightened community connection through her work with Half the Sky Giving Circle, which she helped start in 2009 after participating in another Colorado Springs group.
“It feels like we’re focused on what we’re doing so we can have an impact,” Holmes said. “Part of the reason for our being is not only to contribute as a group to nonprofits but to know what needs to be done. We learn what’s happening in the community.”
As many giving circles do, Half the Sky and the two that Clark founded first research potential grant recipients, often inviting the organizations’ representatives to their meetings to talk about their work. The members then vote to determine which organizations will receive the money.
But there are no concrete rules on what a giving group must do or how it should operate. Some are for women only. Some draw members strictly from one neighborhood. Some meet monthly; others, quarterly. Some set a certain donation amount, some establish a range.
“It can be whatever you want it to be,” Clark said. “That’s what’s so great; it can be as complicated or as easy as you want it.”
She suggests, however, that local giving circles partner with the Pikes Peak Community Foundation, which is an umbrella for Giving Hearts, Little Purses, Half the Sky and three other El Paso County groups—a relationship that makes their donations tax-deductible. The foundation also manages the donations, takes care of the technical aspects of executing the grants, and researches nonprofits to help link giving circles with ones that fit their mission.
“It’s nice to know what you’re really giving to, instead of blindly mailing off a check,” said Ann Davenport, communications manager for the foundation.
Clark started Giving Hearts as a way to meet her new neighbors in University Park when she moved there about five years ago. It’s as much about the socializing as it is about the giving.
The 12 members meet monthly, rotating the gathering among their homes, while their husbands hang out with one another elsewhere. There’s no formal “call to order” or business meeting. They schmooze, eat and, at evening’s end, write a check for the agreed-upon amount—a range of $35 to $50.
“This is really a fellowship of giving and friends,” Kim Crom said.
Toward the end of the year, they start considering which charities will receive their money, the only stipulations being that they are local and help women and children. They vote in January and distribute about $6,000 to $7,000 the next month to at least two groups.
Past recipients have included KPC Kids Place, Cribs for Kids, Partners in Housing, SET Family Medical Clinics, Kids on Bikes and TESSA.
“We chitchat and eat,” Smith said, “but when we’re trying to decide what charities to give to, we take it very seriously.”
The 26-member Half the Sky Giving Circle takes a more formal approach at its quarterly meetings. There’s a half-hour built in for socializing, but come 6:30 p.m., it’s down to business.
“We meet at 6:30, and we’re done by 8,” Holmes said. “We’re pretty focused.”
The all-woman group also has a formal statement that includes its mission and guiding principles, minimum contribution amounts, meeting schedules and makeup of the leadership team and subcommittees.
In November, the group awards its grants, and in December, the members celebrate their accomplishments at a party and discuss what worked and what didn’t at their previous meetings.
Throughout the year, subcommittees meet more often to vet prospective grant recipients and take care of what Holmes calls the more “nitty-gritty details.” Another group reads grant applications and recommends agencies to give presentations to the group.
The group Holmes used to belong to requires a $1-a-day contribution, or $365 a year, but Holmes and the others who founded Half the Sky thought it was too much of a financial burden for some people. They opted to go with a minimum contribution of $120 a year to become a voting member of Half the Sky, although some give more.
“We wanted to make it open to more young family people—people just starting out,” Holmes said. “And so we set our rate lower.”
Last year, which marked the group’s first distribution, three agencies split a pot of $2,200, Holmes said.
To those involved with giving circles, it doesn’t matter whether they’re casual or formal, all-women or not. They’d just like to see other groups started in the Pikes Peak region.
“The need in these economic times is tremendous,” Holmes said.
