A joyful rise in ‘giving circles’

As more Americans gather in small groups to donate modest amounts of money for local needs, they are expanding the idea of charity and community.

|
AP
Volunteers hand out milk at a food distribution site in Miami in 2022.

Charitable giving by individual Americans took a dip last year, largely because of worries over inflation, according to the latest Giving USA report. Yet the report also notes an unexpected shift. Giving for basic needs such as food or housing has risen for four years despite economic changes. Such giving for “human services” now ranks second to donations for religious institutions, edging out giving for education.

One reason may be that Americans are trying different ways to be generous without relying on established charities. One popular avenue in recent years has been “giving circles.” These are small groups of individuals who gather to seek out local needs and then pool money to meet those needs.

Search almost any local newspaper and you might find a headline like this recent one in Ashland County, Ohio: “County to benefit from EmpowHer Giving Circle.” Donors in that group are asked to give only $75 or less to a cause.

The growth of giving circles has been explosive. Their numbers have risen from roughly 1,600 seven years ago to nearly 4,000 last year. Their total giving has jumped from $1.29 billion to more than $3.1 billion, according to a report in April by Philanthropy Together.

The report found that 77% of people in a collective giving group say their participation gave them a “feeling that their voices mattered on social issues.” The report attributes such results to five “T’s”: time, treasure, talent, ties, and testimony.

This sort of bottom-up philanthropy relies heavily on trust, equality, and selflessness; a virtuous circle that draws in more individuals who see the inherent worth of those in need in a community. Giving circles are also “schools of democracy,” as the report puts it. Participants must often listen to and learn from those who hold opposite views on social problems.

The report predicts that the number of giving circles will double in the next five years. “We are a force, and a joyous force,” Isis Krause, Philanthropy Together’s chief strategy officer, told Inside Philanthropy. New ways of giving are not only creating new ways of gathering. They are also pointing to higher concepts of joy.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to A joyful rise in ‘giving circles’
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2024/0626/A-joyful-rise-in-giving-circles
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe