The recent big news in philanthropy was that in late 2020 Mackenzie Scott donated $1.7 billion to 116 nonprofit organizations, followed four months later with an additional $4.2 billion given to another 384 organizations.  Each of the recipients received a carefully researched gift – many of which were the largest they had ever received.  Scott’s extraordinary generosity, coupled with the increased need caused by the pandemic, raised the question: Does a philanthropic gift have to be large to have impact?

On January 12, the Philanos monthly webinar was The Power of Thinking Small:  Smaller Grants Can Have Big Impact.  It had the largest-ever registered audience.  The two presenting affiliates were Spirit of St. Louis, a founding organization of the then-WCGN network, and Impact 100 Seattle, founded just a year ago.  Members of affiliates can view the webinar in the Philanos member portal.  

For both of these affiliates, identifying smaller non-profit organizations and giving grants of $25,000 or less, represented their approach to philanthropy.  But that is not true of all the affiliates who have recently begun looking at smaller grants.  There are intriguing examples of how other Philanos organizations have deviated from long-standing practices to supplement their granting with what each refers to as “small grants”.  These are two of them.

Womenade Boston

In a city of many women’s giving circles, Womenade Boston has carved out a special mission:  to improve the lives of underserved women and teen girls.  Their approach has been to make four grants (two supporting women and two for teens) each year in the $20,000 - $25,000 range to non-profits around $1.5 million in size.   Their vetting process was for their Evaluation Committee to reduce the number of requests to sixteen semifinalists (eight for each), all of which would receive site visits.  Following the visits, the committee would identify eight finalists.  From this group, the entire membership would select the grantees.

But 2020 was a different year.  Like so many affiliates, they were right in the middle of their selection process when Covid-19 restrictions hit.  The Committee met to discuss the situation in a group that included leaders of some of the local nonprofits.  They realized there was no time to finish the formal process, including site visits, they had used previously.  And they knew many in their group of sixteen urgently needed the money.

In a radical move, they decided to give all sixteen semi-finalists grants of $5,000 to use immediately as they saw fit, an idea immediately embraced by members and recipients.  Did it work?  Anecdotally, yes – but final reports are not due for another month.  What they do know, according to Jennifer Flanagan, President, and Sara Lavoie, VP and Chair of Evaluation, is that all sixteen organizations are still open and serving their constituencies – a significant accomplishment in these times.

Girls Rock Campaign

Impact 100 RVA

To honor their tenth anniversary and in response to community leaders’ request for accessible funds, the women of Impact 100 in Richmond VA created the Neighborhood Catalyst Grant.  This four-year, place-based grant will fund up to $25,000 each year utilizing the trust-based philanthropic model.

In 2019, the members selected the Fulton neighborhood with a focus on food security in the community.   A true partnership, Impact 100 members work closely with a panel of neighborhood leaders – Neighborhood Advisory Committee (NAC) – identified with the assistance of people living in Fulton who were already focused on marshalling community resources. The NAC has the responsibility to highlight very specific needs and concrete solutions for improvement.  Throughout the program’s three years, the NAC has played a key role in encouraging grant applications and collaborative projects among the neighborhood’s important support organizations.

The Neighborhood Catalyst Grant is a complementary undertaking to the annual awarding of at least one $100,000 grant Impact 100 RVA has done historically (there have been two grants in recent years).  It has different committee members and the money is raised separately from the annual membership fee.  A big benefit to members has been the opportunity to work closely with the women neighborhood leaders in the Fulton community.   According to Talley Baratka, Impact 100 RVA founder and Catalyst Grant Initiative co-founder, “Trusting women is what women’s collective giving is all about.  This approach is about trusting women in their own neighborhoods to know what needs to happen.  It is that simple.”

"We are standing on some good ground here." Ms. Linda Sutton says of the Fulton community. The Impact 100 Fulton-based Catalyst Grant Committee continues important work during their second virtual meeting to review invited proposals. More work continues next month by these dedicated volunteers. This is the third year of a four-year commitment by Impact 100 Richmond in partnership with the women-led committee.

As these innovative programs show, a gift can be impactful if it is large or small.  It just needs to be the right size for its purpose.  To learn more, go to www.womenadeboston.org and www.impact100rva.org

In March, I and my team will launch a pilot project for online affinity group engagement among interested affiliates. The purpose of the test groups is to provide peer-to-peer sharing for affiliates involved in adopting DEI-related initiatives for their respective giving circles.   

Several Philanos affiliates are participating, including Impact 100 Cincinnati (OH), San Diego Women’s Foundation (CA), Women’s Giving Circle of Howard County (MD), Impact 100 Essex (NJ), Baltimore Women’s Giving Circle (MD), Women’s Giving Alliance of Jacksonville (FL), Many Hands (DC), Women’s Impact Fund of Charlotte (NC), Idaho Women's Charitable Foundation (ID) and The Philanthropy Connection (MA).   

These affiliates are assigned to one of the following two tracks and will meet for at least two sessions. Then they will determine how they want to stay connected as they proceed. 

Track 1: “Grant Making with an Equity Lens” 

For organizations that are exploring, testing and doing early-stage implementation of changes in grant making processes that further equity and trust-based philanthropy. 

Facilitated by Laura Midgley, WA Women’s Foundation member; Philanos Board Member; Past Chair of WCGN (now Philanos)

Track 2: “Organizational/Membership DEI Strategies” 

For organizations that are implementing DEI learning resources for members, outreach to BIPOC women as members, and enhancing leadership diversity. 

Facilitated by Deepika Andavarapu, VP, Impact 100 Cincinnati; Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

Other ongoing work by our Philanos AE&E team includes case studies of affiliates who have made multiple and significant changes in their grant making over time. Additionally, they have begun baseline interviews with any affiliate doing DEI work, capturing who they are, a description of where they are in the process, lessons learned, and further contact information. This information will be collated and shared in the Member Portal to assist affiliates as they move from theory to practice. We will let you know when this vital information is online! 

Philanos promotes the global initiative for the collective giving movement through Philanthropy  Together. 

Philanos is proud to be one of five networks, along with Amplifier, Asian Women Giving Circle, Community Investment Network, and Latino Community Foundation, that founded Philanthropy Together (PhT) in April 2020. Its goals are to:

PhT’s global initiatives will bolster all networks like Philanos as well as individual giving circles. So what does PhT do and how is it different from Philanos?

Philanthropy Together intends to democratize and diversify philanthropy around the world by incubating giving circles and supporting existing ones.  It has four strategic, global focus areas:

1. Showcase: Expand awareness about giving circles (listen to PhT’s Executive Director, Sara Lomelin, discuss “What Big Philanthropy Can Learn From Giving Circles”)
2. Scale: Strategically grow circles and circle membership (learn about Launchpad, the giving circle incubator that provides 5 weeks of virtual training for those who wish to start a giving circle and Launchpad for Hosts for those, like community foundations, interested in hosting one);
3. Strengthen: Build capacity, leadership, and knowledge sharing (discover the “Community Calendar” in which giving circles can share their virtual events and learn of others, and watch for the first global giving circle directory in early 2021); and
4. Sustain: Support ongoing vibrancy and effectiveness of the field.

One way PhT will promote sustainability and vibrancy is through its “We Give Summit”  throughout the month of May 2021.  The purpose of this celebration of collective giving is elevating the movement and spawning collaborations across networks and giving groups.  If you have ideas for breakout sessions around perennial topics of interest like member retention, strategic planning and Board development, please send them to sbenford@philanos.org.

Because Philanos had to cancel its planned PowerUP! in-person event for September 2021, we will be active presenters (and attendees) in the “We Give Summit”.  Plan on joining us!

Also, PhT is creating an international, searchable directory of giving circles.  Each profile will cover the basics about each giving group: its mission, issue focus area, membership, dollars raised and invested, and more. Don’t miss this opportunity to raise the visibility (and impact) of your group and giving circles in general.

Join Philanthropy Together on January 28 at 4 pm Pacific/7 pm Eastern as giving groups around the world complete their profiles together and meet each other for the first time.  Please register here, which also puts you in the running to win:

If you’ve questions about the directory or the profile party, contact PhT’s Director of Engagement, Tyeshia Wilson (tyeshia@philanthropytogether.org) or Philanos Chair Paula Liang (pliang@philanos.org).

See you there!

Giving circles and collective giving groups are working to address power in philanthropy. Why? Because there are times that funders inadvertently hinder nonprofits doing the work they know best.

According to the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project (the Project), this can slow down progress, perpetuate inefficiency, and obstruct nonprofit growth and innovation. Trust-Based Philanthropy reimagines that dynamic. Infused by core values of power-sharing, equity, humility, transparency, curiosity, and collaboration, the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project believes philanthropic efforts will be more successful and rewarding if funders approach each grantee relationship as an ongoing partnership rather than a one-time transaction.

The Project outlines a trust-based approach that relies on six interrelated principles which, when practiced together, can help alleviate power imbalances:

1. Provide Multi-Year, Unrestricted Funding
2. Do the Homework
3. Simplify & Streamline Paperwork
4. Be Transparent & Responsive
5. Solicit & Act on Feedback
6. Offer Support Beyond the Check

If you were able to join the Philanos monthly webinar series on October 13 on Women's Giving Circles & Trust-Based Philanthropy, you heard an introduction to trust-based philanthropy for giving circles - what it is and how it can be reflected in collective giving. 

The webinar presented its principles and practices, the reasons for its emergence, and the impact it has had on the social sector. We heard from two perspectives: Colby Swettberg, Chief Executive Office of the Silver Lining Institute in Boston spoke from the nonprofit perspective; and Philip Li, President and CEO of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation in New York City, spoke from the funder perspective. In addition to sharing their experiences, they helped us understand how we might apply trust-based philanthropy principles to the collective giving model – how we educate our members, how we evaluate applications and organizations, and how we remain open to supporting organizations we may not know very well.

Philanos affiliate member Impact 100 Seattle is committed to incorporating trust-based philanthropy principles and practices throughout their grantmaking philosophy.

In fact, they proudly and publicly state their grantmaking philosophy as believing in trust-based philanthropy to drive enduring improvements in the Puget Sound Region. As a somewhat new organization, they are working hard to address some of the unhealthy power dynamics in traditional philanthropy. 

Here are their grantmaking principles:

●       Trust-Based Philanthropy. Impact Seattle 100 members see trust-based philanthropy as a process to address long-standing power imbalances and increase equity in philanthropy. They believe this approach requires funders to build relationships with grantee organizations through trust-based practices and behaviors.

●       Partner for Transformative Change. This approach is based on their desire for transformative change – or addressing the root causes of issues and inequities as opposed to the symptoms. They want to support organizations that work in partnership with others toward collective impact and those that build power among those who may lack it.

●       Embrace Risk. Impact Seattle 100 members are committed to embracing risk, by rewarding and encouraging new ways of thinking and acting to increase resilience and impact. 

●       Listen, Learn and Evolve. They are committed to listening, learning and evolving, by recognizing the learning journey they are on with other members, and their partners.

“We are offering support beyond the check ... we want to be an organization that grants with curiosity” said Jennifer Larsen, Impact Seattle 100 Vice President. “We worked hard to remain in a learning posture throughout the process and sustained an equitable process throughout.”

The principles of Trust-Based Philanthropy have been important for funders across the country in general, and in particular the last ten months during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Philanos affiliate member ninety-nine girlfriends has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by adapting their work to be responsive to the situation at hand in their community. As they state publicly on their website, “ninety-nine girlfriends plays a unique role in our region in connecting women in collective action and supporting nonprofits. All of us must pivot as the pandemic moves through our community ... ninety-nine girlfriends will play our role in ‘flattening the curve’ to slow down the spread of COVID-19 and the severity of its impact on our community.”

Ninety-nine girlfriends has been vocal about leveraging best practices by philanthropic leaders across the country and highlighting Trust-Based Philanthropy principles to their philanthropic response to COVID-19. In fact, they have highlighted recommendations from the Council on Foundations and the Whitman Institute.

The Council on Foundations created a Call to Action to guide philanthropy’s commitment during COVID-19, where over 600 organizations have signed.

Among the recommendations are to:

●        Loosen or eliminate restrictions on current grants.
●        Make new grants as unrestricted as possible to provide maximum flexibility for nonprofits.
●        Reduce what we ask of nonprofit partners e.g. site visits, reporting requirements and other demands on their time.
●        Support grantee partners advocating for important public policy changes.

COF’s recommendations are based on the work of the Whitman Institute, advocating for Trust-Based Philanthropy. There is much we will learn about the Trust-Based philanthropic response to COVID-19 in the months and years to come.

Giving circles and collective giving groups across the country are increasingly listening, learning, and responding by incorporating Trust-Based Philanthropy principles and practices throughout their grantmaking philosophy and seeking to help alleviate power imbalances.

And, Philanos is committed to being an ongoing resource and partner to our affiliate members across the country on the principles and practices of Trust-Based Philanthropy.

Listen to Pia Infante & Vu Le's PowerUP! 2020 presentation here!

Philanos proudly announces 11 of our affiliates were granted $1K to further their DEI practices.  

Philanthropy Together made 25 grants of $1,000 each to organizations that had participated in PhT’s six-month Racial Equity Community of Practice.  Grants were made to attendees who had developed ideas about programming that would further their group’s DEI journey. The Philanos affiliates that were awarded are:

Explore Philanos DEI resources here!

Spoiler Alert: It was extraordinary, just like all of their programming to date.

Having been one of the original Co-Design team members whose mission was to  bring some infrastructure and support to the entire collective giving sector will, I believe, be one of the crowning achievements of my life.

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others, the five of us on that team took a leap of faith in the movement and each other: Felicia Harman of Amplifier, Hali Lee, founder of the Asian Women’s Giving Circle, Sara Lomelin of The Latino Community Foundation, Marsha Morgan, chair of the Community Investment Network, and myself.  We practiced radical transparency and decided early on that we wouldn’t be defined by “turf.”  Many philanthropic women sit at multiple tables. We aren’t in competition; we are in community.

Now called Philanthropy Together, the initiative that we designed with input from more than 100 funders, leaders and members across the movement (men and women), launched on April 1, 2020.  I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that it felt like terrible timing in that moment, and we were all concerned about 18 months of work going up in the flames of a global pandemic. 

We needn’t have worried.  The ED we hired, Sara Lomelin, (yes, an original member of the Co-Design team) and our amazing consultant, Isis Krause, who was Sara’s first hire, have the knowledge and the passion to push through many obstacles. They are also unhampered by an imposing structure, a large board and the expectations of hundreds of funders.  They hit the ground at a gallop and haven’t let up. 

Their first two webinars, attended by hundreds, were all about the Black Lives Matter moment and philanthropy’s response. They featured Executive Directors of frontline organizations, answered crucial questions, and offered important “tips and tricks”. Two personal takeaways:

Following two outstanding webinars, Philanthropy Together found enough interest in these topics to host a six-month long Racial Equity Community of Practice, which was attended by dozens of staff, leaders and members of collective giving groups across the sector, including Susan Benford, Sandy Cook and myself and dozens of leaders of Philanos affiliates.  Marsha Morgan (who many of you will remember from her intro of Ijeoma Oluo at PowerUP!2020) and I recorded sessions for this Community of Practice (COP) and other organizations. A couple of takeaways:

As the final act of the Racial Equity COP, Philanthropy Together announced that they had $25K available to grant to organizations whose leaders had been part of the cohort, and who had ideas about programming that would further their DEI journey.  It was incredibly fulfilling to have 11 of our Philanos affiliates win these $1K awards. Details:

I look forward to hearing stories about the impact of these small but meaningful grants. I also encourage all of you to add Philanthropy Together to your bookmarks, check out their programming and the resources available on their website—you’ll recognize some of Philanos’ best content being promoted to a wider audience. 

And if any of you have questions, suggestions, ideas, you all know how to reach me, pliang@philanos.org

Sharing this exceptional post with valuable resources:

Facing the Challenge of Racial Inequity or Avoiding It,  Jim Taylor, BoardSource blog, October 30, 2020

The Women's Giving Circle of Howard County, Maryland is proud to continue our support for Black Philanthropy Month (BPM) which is observed every August. The primary aims of BPM are informing, involving, inspiring and investing in Black philanthropic leadership to strengthen African-American and African-descent giving in all its forms, for the benefit of our planet, our communities, our organizations and our lives.

"We are excited to continue our support of National Black Philanthropy Month" said Hina Naseem and Judy Smith, co-Chairs of WGC's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. "Informing, involving, inspiring and investing in Black philanthropic leadership are among the goals of this annual celebration and we are committed to advancing this important work in philanthropy, both in our community and across the country."

 Read the full post here!

Shared post from July 9, 2020 
https://www.givingprojectvt.org/new-blog

I had a wonderful, appropriately socially distant, afternoon with the visionary founders of The Giving Project, Leslie Halperin and Laura Latka in mid-June. As a part-time Vermonter myself, I was very excited to hear about their achievement in standing up 10 new Giving Circles around the state during the COVID quarantine, and hoping that the next cohort, which they expect to start in the Fall, will include one in Windham County, because I would absolutely join.

By way of introduction, I am a member and past President of Women’s Giving Alliance in Jacksonville, FL which is where my husband and I spend most of our time. WGA was founded by 5 influential local women in 2001, and it’s 450 members generally grant about $500K per year to organizations that serve women and girls in our five-county region. I am also the Chair of Philanos, a national network of over 70 women’s giving circles, and women’s funds and foundations that practice collective giving, and which have 15,000+ individual members. These groups annually invest over $15Million in their communities.  The network provides individual mentoring for the leaders of these groups, monthly webinars and other tools, and hosts a very popular biennial conference, where the sense of common purpose and Sisterhood is very powerful.

Leslie and Laura asked me to write a guest blog, and I thought what I could offer to those of you who are just starting a Giving Circle or are considering being a part of the next wave are some ideas of things you might want to consider before you make your first round of grants—though Brava to the group in Brattleboro that has already moved funds to local Nonprofits! So, in no particular order: 

1. What Matters Most?  
   Hali Lee, who founded both the Asian Women’s Giving Circle in NYC and the Donors of Color network likes to say that because she isn’t religious, her giving circle is where she goes to talk about values.  Some very well-established groups with hundreds of members are going to be having interesting and perhaps uncomfortable conversations around their shared values in the next few months. You have the opportunity to put what you believe and value right up front, and we are all living in an environment when this has become an expectation. Ideally, this would be the result of a a conversation among the founder(s) and several other committed founding members.

2. What Needs are the Greatest?
   Lots of collective giving groups have done “disaster philanthropy” with some or all of their funds, others have stuck to their grant cycles as laid out before COVID. To be clear, there’s no wrong answer here. There are countless frontline organizations battling both the virus and institutional racism that need immediate funding.  But as Joanne Cohen, of the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, which hosts WGA, has said, recovering from this set of crises will require that folks invest in the entire non-profit sector; we will need not only disaster relief, but investments in social services, educational institutions and the arts to fully restore our society.

3. How do we respond to #BlackLivesMatter?
   In a state that was, as of 2019 94% Caucasian, it might be difficult to imagine about how to diversify your Giving Circle; but there are other ways to think about this. I listened to a webinar this week where Marcus Littles of Frontline Solutions acknowledged this problem, and basically said, your circle members are who they are, but there are other ways to help: Consider who you hire to advise you, (and please, if you look to NPO CEOs of color to advise you, compensate them), who you order food and other products from for your circle or your events. You can support black business owners, locally and nationally. 
   You can also learn more about anti-racist philanthropy. Reading and resource lists abound on this subject. Feel free to use the Philanos Building Anti-Racist Organizations page. There is also a national organization that that began working to support giving circles and giving circle networks on April 1, 2020, funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation called Philanthropy Together.  They have produced two excellent webinars on the topic already, which you can watch here

4. What stories will you tell about your Circle?  
   Lots of GC leaders like to talk about the “Four Ts: Time, Talent, Treasure and Testimony” as the most significant, and equal, assets they bring to the work. I was fortunate to be in Seattle a few months ago and was invited to the founding meeting of a group called Impact 100 Seattle.  Laura Midgley, a Philanos Board Member, friend, and member of Washington Women’s Foundation in Seattle came along with me, to a wine and cheese reception in a locally owned shop a couple of miles north of what was recently #CHAZ.  She told the founders, women in their 30s, to take lots of photos, and “remember this night, because in 10, 15 years, you’re going to be telling the story of the night you launched.”  The founders were pretty wide-eyed at this.  It was great advice when we could meet in person, but if your launch is going to be virtual, you can also make it memorable.  I have been on Zoom calls with musicians, poets, all kinds of “ice-breakers” and celebrity guests.  Invite your mayor or the wife of one of your (sadly all male) Congressional delegation.
   There will also be non-grantmaking effects of your work, especially as you grow, and you should keep track of those stories as well. How many local Non-profit women are part of your Circles? What non-monetary assistance did you provide to a grantee: volunteers, board members, advice, connection to other resources? Which of your members changed her path to work with Nonprofits? Who founded an organization to fill a gap in services you learned about? These kinds of stories abound within Philanos and the other Giving Circle Networks, and they lend a great deal of credence to the work. 

5. Consider Funding Democracy?
   Philanos held a conference in Seattle in late February, 2020 which was called PowerUP! The Spark that Ignites Change and was DEI-focused. The final plenary speaker, Pia Enfante of the Whitman Institute said something that I will admit has haunted me, especially in light of the rolling state of crisis in which we find ourselves. Her advice: “consider funding Democracy, and if your members think it’s too political, ask them if they want to breathe air and live in a democracy?” Even if you can’t get your nascent group to think about aligning around values in politics, there are non-partisan groups in every State working to register people to vote and turning out the vote that you could support.  

I’m envious that you are all at the beginning of what I am certain will be an incredibly satisfying journey in collective giving, and excited to know that in a few years, probably sooner than you think, Vermont will have a statewide network of smart, connected women who care about their communities and are working to be the change they seek to make in them.  You’ll meet lovely humans, make lifelong friends and learn a lot about your local NPO ecosystem. There will likely be wine involved. This is not a moment, it’s a movement.  Welcome.

-Paula Liang
Chair, Philanos
pliang@philanos.org

Hi - here's an overview of 10 Ways the Women's Giving Circle of Howard County, Maryland is utilizing our strengths to respond to COVID-19

https://www.womensgivingcircle.org/blog/ten-ways-the-womens-giving-circle-of-howard-county-is-utilizing-our-strengths-to-respond-to-covid-19