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Luncheon Workshop
Calgary - Sept. 10, 11:30-1:00pm
Presenting at the CAFE Calgary luncheon. Presentation on strategic philanthropy and setting up business and personal philanthropic plans.
For more information and register please visit: www.cafecanada.ca/calgary
4 R's Conference
Syndey, Australia - Sept. 30 to Oct. 3, 2008.
This conference explores the many ways in which human rights are intertwined with social and political wellbeing.
For more information:
http://www.the4rsconference.org
I have wanted to write about Giving Circles for some time now. I touched on them several months ago and never got back to the concept and where things are headed.
Tactical Philanthropy has written several different blogs on the Giving Circle concepts and I thought of furthering this idea when I read Irene Levine's blog Fractured Friendships. How Giving Circles can be used to mend broken relationships. Dexterity Consulting is not in the business of rebuilding fractured families, however, I have seen that if used properly, the idea of adaptive philanthropy can in fact repair broken relationships.
Adaptive Philanthropy is the ability to navigate the charitable landscape without losing oneself, and ones values in the process. We have all read or experienced first hand how the non-profit sector is effective and in-effective in their use of resources (whether those resources be human, financial or technical). As I take this idea further how can Adaptive Philanthropy, and in this case, giving circles within the charitable landscape build community and bridges?
In a report entitled the Future of Philanthropy (see resources section of this website for a copy) there is a piece on Giving Circles. The charitable giving circle model came out of women's investment groups. I had a conversation with an Investment Advisor from Edward Jones. His clientele were mostly retired women who were very conservative in their investments. I asked him how his clients had started in the investing world, thinking that it was their husbands who had managed the process for the most part. How wrong I was... He informed me that many of these women (60+ yrs.) had amassed their investment wealth by pooling resources with other women. The way that it worked was each woman was responsible for investing a portion of the money in funds that as a collective they supported. At the end of the year they would take the interest generating and pick another stock or fund to invest in sharing the wealth and the losses over time. As time progressed, and these women amassed wealth they began to look at the interest being generated as a way to give back to community. In addition to reinvesting some of the interest back into the stock market, they also, as a group began to make charitable investments back into their communities. It was a natural progression from generating capital for themselves, to generating social capital for the community.
This same model is now being applied in charitable investments. One personal example that I can think of is a group of women (friends of mine) who played Mah Jongg on a weekly basis. The points were counted by pennies, quarters, loose change really. At the end of the night the funds were put into a pool and over the course of the year those funds accumulated and were donated to a charity that the women had researched. They realized that the impact that they could generate was greater by pooling resources than if they had each donated their share individual to several organizations. In fact, what ended up happening was each of the women then matched the amount that was in the pooled funds so it was actually multiplied by 4!
This giving circle has been actively doing this type of gifting for almost ten years (if not longer). Each year they choose which charity to be the recipient of their funds. Sometimes they stay with the same organization, and sometimes they change it. If the charity has done their job over the year, then the women who have given individually to match the funds has been connected with on a personal level to that charity and brought into the annual giving fold.
What is even more interesting is that in both instances, the women brought in outside counsel to help them in the decision making process. They realized that they had a finite amount of knowledge as financial investors and as charitable investors and in order to make an educated decision they needed to seek expert advice. They independently research companies and charities to share with each other AND they brought in experts in the fields to share their knowledge with them. If only all investors would take on that initiative (which goes to other discussions around the information that is available for philanthropic investors... or the obvious lack of information).
Giving Circles do not have to be as small as book clubs and Mah Jongg groups. They can be as large as a Facebook Network. Social Networking is bringing people together, who otherwise have little in common, except that the charities that they give to or the causes that they believe in are the same. By identifying yourself as part of a group and encouraging others to join you, you are creating circles of influence that can build bridges and foster stronger relationships. Again, if the charity or cause is doing their job well, they will be connecting with you on a personal level as well as on a group level to ensure that as the philanthropic consumer you are satisfied with the work that is being accomplished.
The evolution of giving circles is a fast one. Started off by women in small groups - investment circles, book clubs and card groups it as evolved into the business practices of social venture groups and social networking sites. You Tube has also gotten on the giving circle bandwagon with their new Non-Profit section of their site, and the ability to link cause related videos to each other - expanding the cause marketing sphere targeted audience.
Whole charitable organizations have been structured around the giving circle model - Kiva, GiveMeaning, ChristmasFuture. In fact, the web of giving is something that is currently being looked at and implemented by several tech based companies like NetSquared and NTen.
It is my belief that in today's society where impact is something that needs to be effectively reported back to investors, the Giving Circle model where Proof of Impact and Charitable Webbing is highlighted is going to be the main direction of philanthropists. Community Foundations, Donor Advised Funds and Public Foundations are catching this wave as they attempt to bring more donors into their fold. Charitable organizations are also starting to climb onboard the Giving Circle train as they see the opportunities for funding collaboration. In fact, this movement, I believe, is going to be breaking down some of the traditional turf barriers in the charitable sector.
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