What is a Giving Circle?
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 Bozeman
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. Up through November 2014, Women Who Wine has raised a total of $58,561.51 for a total of 65 local-area non-profit organizations. In 2015, the Women Who Wine group officially became a Giving Circle of the Bozeman Area Community Foundation.Recently, in December 2015, the Women Who Wine Giving Circle distributed $3,561.51 to three local nonprofits: Montana Wilderness School, The Community Cafe and the Million Girl Army.
