Giving Circles

A Giving Circle is a form of participatory philanthropy where groups of individuals donate their own money or time to a pooled fund, decide together where to give these away to charity or community projects and, in doing so, seek to increase their awareness of and engagement in the issues covered by the charity or community project. Many circles, in addition to donating their money, also contribute their time and skills to support local causes. A Giving Circle is a form of shared giving and social investment networking — representing a growing trend in philanthropy as community organizations established by individuals are seeking to have greater involvement in their giving.

Women Who Wine was founded in Bozeman in June 2007, based loosely on a women’s networking group to which the founder, Babs Noelle, had belonged.  Having lived in Bozeman for three years at that point, Babs noted that many local nonprofit channels seemed geared exclusively towards people of greater-than-median means, and wanted to form this group to remedy that. Under the tagline of “Raising Money for Charity, One Grape at a Time,” Women Who Wine initially featured monthly meetings to which attendees brought an appetizer or bottle of wine, plus $5, with all funds going to that month’s host’s chosen nonprofit. In 2015, the Women Who Wine group officially became a Giving Circle of the Bozeman Area Community Foundation.