Sandi Slap of The Transition Network Philadelphia Giving Circle

TTN Philadelphia Giving Circle improves the lives of women and children in Philadelphia through collective giving to nonprofit organizations serving their needs.  They are committed to inclusion across race, gender, age, religion and identify and seek to support organizations who share this commitment.

We recently spoke to Sandi and invited her thoughts on their current efforts!

	What’s the most interesting effort your circle is focusing on right now? The Transition Network Philadelphia Giving Circle has designated 2022 as “The Year of the Child” to commemorate our Giving Circle’s ten years of giving.  This year, we are focusing exclusively on the needs of Philadelphia’s children.  To that end, we have hosted three educational programs which addressed the most pressing needs and issues facing our city’s children, including, education, mental health, mentorship, youth job training and opportunities and gun violence.  We have also embarked on a year-long fundraising initiative to enable us to make impactful grants to nonprofits serving Philadelphia’s children in 2023.
	What is something your circle is currently challenged by? We recognize that small grassroots organizations have a positive and direct impact on the lives of children in their neighborhoods.  Our newly adopted Diversity Initiative is aimed at increasing diversity in the size, leadership and approach to addressing problems among our nonprofit grant applicants in 2023 and forward.  We seek small Philadelphia nonprofits embedded in their communities with strong leadership and/or professional staffs of people of color who reflect the communities they serve.
	What Philanos resource has been most helpful to you this year, and why? The webinars on Philanos’ website have provided valuable insights and information for our Giving Circle on trust-based philanthropy and grantee membership programs, among other things. Our Giving Circle is always focused on new ways to increase the impact of our mission and this type of guidance assists us in doing just that.

By Ann Marie McGee
Philanos Communications Co-chair
Impact 100 Redwood Circle, CA

Women’s Giving Circles are Making a Difference Across the Country. Check out news from these 22 Philanos Affiliates.

The 2022 - 2023 Philanos Board of Directors met in Denver in June to plan for the future.

"It was wonderful to be with these amazing national leaders to plan for our organization's future and for the women's collective giving movement" said Philanos Board Chair Susan Benford. "We are looking forward to many new opportunities to support our 78 affiliates in the coming year."

By Rebekah Bonde
Philanos Board Treasurer
Washington Women’s Foundation

In 1998, I sat in the congregation of University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, listening to a Sunday morning 'Moment for Mission'. Two women shared of their experience in a collective giving group and how they were learning an intentional modality of grant making that was changing how they viewed philanthropy. I was transfixed. It was one of those rare moments that etched in my brain because it felt immediately significant, and I noted three things: 

1. The buy-in was $1,000, which was more than my monthly rent as a 27-year-old in the nascent stages of her career.
2. What would it take to participate in this level of giving; and
3. Who in the world is Colleen Willoughby?

18 years later, I am in Colleen's kitchen pulling out things to make an impromptu cheese and cracker platter at her direction and talking about scarves and Gen-X giving patterns.

I could spend the next several minutes itemizing Colleen's many accomplishments at Washington Women's, the Evans School at UW, or even the fact she has a Wikipedia entry. But I'd rather tell you about how her work directly changed me even though she had no idea who I was until I joined the Philanos Board (née WCGN) in 2015.  

After my husband and I moved from Seattle to Austin, TX, a neighbor introduced me to Impact Austin as a way to use my professional skill set in a meaningfully volunteer manner and to meet other women seeking to make an impact in their community.  I joined and attended my first WCGN conference in 2012 when Kathy LeMay spoke, and she asked us to write an audacious goal on a piece of paper that we had to fulfill within one year.  It was always my worst fear to be called upon in public, and since I'll probably never have to do it…I wrote down "speak in public about philanthropy."

I saw Colleen at that conference and oh-so vaguely remembered something about Washington Women's.  Colleen spoke about the genesis of WaWF, about how important it was for women to give philanthropically in their own name, and why she chose $1,000 - the level at which you first get your name printed in a charity's list of donors.  And then the memory of the 'Moment for Mission' came flooding back, and I had to pinch myself: "I can't believe I'm here."

Within 12 months of that conference, I was (very nervously) giving my first talk, standing up and being called on by name. I made my first donation as ME, not "the wife of…" And I found a calling that has elevated not only my voice and my financial impact, but more importantly my sense of self. I never, ever thought I would chair a Board of Directors, or sit on a panel of city leaders as an Impact Austin representative or write for a national publication on behalf of Philanos. Yes, all this because of the women's collective giving movement because Colleen started a movement. How ironic that when we all come to the collective we meet ourselves front and center, sometimes for the first time.

Since that first conference, I've spoken at several Philanos conferences, captained a boat race, ran to meet a political idol, and aggressively shook her hand on a street corner in Washington DC, stood up and said more at work, and even orated to a large group of Presbyterians when selected as my church's 'Woman of the Month'.  I think about the 27-year-old women who were in the audience that day, looking at me and wondering, "What would it take…". 

Most of us start in the audience, and now we are in front talking to the next generation of women.  We are the leaders of today so we can model leadership for tomorrow. And let me tell you, you never know who is listening. It's probably someone you've never met and never will, until…

Thank you, Colleen.

Watch the 2020 PowerUP! slideshow tribute to Colleen!

Philanos July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023 Board of Directors

Susan Benford, Chair, member of The Philanthropy Connection (Boston, MA) and Impact100 Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA)

Margaret (Maggie) Glasgow, Chair-elect, member of Greenville Women Giving, (Greenville, SC)

Ellan Bernstein, Secretary and Education Co-chair, member of Impact100 Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA)

Rebekah Bonde, Treasurer, member of Washington Women’s Foundation (Seattle, WA)

Deepika Andavarapu, member of Impact 100 Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH)

Buffy Beaudoin-Schwartz, Communications Chair, member of Women’s Giving Circle of Howard County (Columbia, MD)

Amy Conard, Technology Chair, member of Spirit of St. Louis Women’s Fund (St. Louis, MO)

Sandra (Sandy) Cook, Affiliate Engagement Chair, member of Impact100 Metro Denver (Denver, CO)

Stephanie Cook, member of San Diego Women’s Foundation (San Diego, CA)

Heather Jauregui, member of Idaho Women’s Charitable Foundation (Boise, ID)

Deborah Majewski, Education Co-chair, member of Women’s Impact Fund (Charlotte, NC)

Ann Marie McGee, Communications Vice Chair, member of Impact 100 Redwood Circle (Santa Rosa, CA)

Clare O’Brien, member of Impact 100 Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH)

Paula Perkins, Governance Chair, member of Impact100 Wichita Falls (Wichita Falls, TX)

June 30, 2022 6 board members retired after years of Philanos service.  Several were founding board members who have exceeded their service both in term limits and development of the Philanos Network.

Colleen Willoughby 
Washington Women’s Foundation, Seattle, WA

Colleen Willoughby is a force for women’s leadership development and their engagement in civic life.  It began early.  Visiting Washington, DC as a high schooler and sitting in the seat of the first ever female US Senator Margaret Chase Smith during Girls Nation, Colleen had an epiphany which has been her North star.  Like the Senator, she inherently believed in effective civic leadership and respect for women’s roles in our civil society. She has dedicated much of her life to creating opportunity for women to learn, participate and to continue their leadership development.  Read more

Laura Midgley 
Washington Women’s Foundation, Seattle, WA 
Wood River Women’s Foundation, Kechum, ID

Laura served as the founding board chair of Philanos (then called WCGN) from 2013 to 2015. She’s an active member of two Philanos affiliates, the Wood River Women’s Foundation in Ketchum, ID (since 2014) and Washington Women’s Foundation in Seattle (since 2002), where she was a WaWF director for nine years and served in numerous leadership roles. She proudly co-chaired PowerUP! The Spark That Ignites Change, Philanos’ national conference in February 2020 for 370 leaders who convened in Seattle to advance their understanding and commitment to equitable grantmaking and inclusivity in our organizations. She led securing nearly $200,000 in grants, major gifts and earned revenue for the network that still contributes to its sustainability today. Read more

Virginia Mills 
GIVING WoMN, Minneapolis, MN

Virginia is a founding board member of Philanos (formerly WCGN) and served as the second board chair of Philanos, from 2015-2017. She is a member of GIVING WoMN in Minneapolis, MN and past member of both The Philanthropy Connection and Womenade Boston, MA.

When asked how she came to this network, Virginia tells of a “completely freaky” set of circumstances that led her to this board, but those who have known her well would reply that this was no coincidence.  In 2009 she had just joined the GIVING WoMN Board in Minneapolis as a co-chair of marketing.  Her fellow co-chair told her, “We can go to this event in Boise and meet some other women leaders of like groups,” and Virginia agreed.  When her travel partner got ill and couldn’t attend, Virginia showed up alone to a meeting where she knew no one.  She met Vicki Sheehan from St. Louis in the hotel restaurant, who took her under her wing and introduced her to the group of women that would become the founders of WCGN (Women’s Collective Giving Grantmakers Network), now Philanos.  Read more

Avani Desai 
100 Women Strong, Orlando FL

Avani credits Paula Liang, past Chair of Philanos, for bringing her onto our national board.  Avani was, at that time, President of her affiliate, 100 Women Strong in Orlando, FL, when Paula engaged with her around the planning of the national WCGN conference in Jacksonville in 2017.  She was recruited to the board to assist with technology, social media and building a partnership for DEI work among their affiliates. Read more

Karen Holly 
Impact 100 Indianapolis, IN

Karen Holly, like retiring board member Avani, has also served for two terms (six years) on the Philanos Board – beginning when it was still the Women’s Collective Giving Grantmakers Network (WCGN).  Karen is a past president of her affiliate, Impact 100 Indianapolis, where she demonstrated a real heart for membership as their membership chair.  Read more

Gwen Wesley 
Spirit of St. Louis Women's Fund, MO

Gwen came to the Philanos Board, and the Board went to her because of her expertise in strategic planning.  Founder Vicki Sheehan was instrumental in this match, and they both are members of Spirit of St. Louis Women’s Fund.  Gwen came on the board in 2019 to craft a strategic plan during a period of rebranding and renewal, and six months into her work, the pandemic hit. Read more

Philanos Chair, Susan Benford was a guest on IMPACTability™: The Nonprofit Leaders’ Podcast – The Collective Giving Movement, powered by Soukup Strategic Solutions.

During this podcast Susan was asked, What is collective giving, and how could it benefit your nonprofit? How does a group start a giving circle?

Susan also shared how giving circles can leverage individuals’ small donations into a large, significant gift.

Lots of nonprofits are curious about giving circles. Listen to Susan’s practical insights in this podcast.

Eliza Rossman of ALLINBKLYN

ALLINBKLYN is a community of women committed to philanthropy in Brooklyn. We pool our dollars and make thoughtful grants to organizations that are strengthening our borough. All nonprofits in service to the people and places of Brooklyn are eligible for consideration.

We recently spoke to Eliza and invited her thoughts on their current efforts!

	What’s the most interesting effort your circle is focusing on right now?  We're always working on something interesting... But right now the effort that has my attention in particular is our focus on creating a viable infrastructure so that Allinbklyn can continue to work in service to Brooklyn way into the future! That means engaging as many members as possible to make the engine run - so far so good!
	What is something your circle is currently challenged by?  A constant challenge for us is figuring out the best way to meet the vast need in Brooklyn with our limited funds. We are always challenged to determine how best to direct our dollars for the greatest impact. This borough is the fourth largest "city" in the country and only receives 5% of all philanthropic dollars raised in New York. Meeting that challenge realistically, given who we are and how we operate, is top of mind.
	What Philanos resource has been most helpful to you this year, and why?  In past years, the Philanos conferences and virtual meetings have been very helpful. This year, given all the internal work we're doing to solidify our infrastructure, Philanos has been an especially helpful and practical resource for us. For instance, when we needed information on databases, they connected us to giving circles that could answer our specific questions. This saved us valuable research time enabling us to get solid information quickly.

by Exponent Philanthropy
April 22, 2022

Sandy Cook, Philanos Affiliate Engagement & Expansion Chair, a leader at Impact100 Metro Denver and a founding member of the Women’s Giving Alliance of Northeast Florida, joined Exponent Philanthropy's Catalytic Podcast to share her thoughts on, "How Can We Support Transformation at Your Organization?"

Creative, high-impact philanthropy is practiced by donors of all types - foundations, donor advised funds, social venture funders, and collective giving organizations.

Find out why Impact100 Metro Denver invites nonprofits to step back and consider what they need to make significant shifts in how they work. Sandy shares examples of how investing in nonprofits' unglamorous infrastructure needs, such as redesigning space, and buying trucks and equipment, helps organizations achieve exponentially more impact.  

The Catalytic Philanthropy Podcast - A Women’s Collective Giving Group Asks Nonprofits, “How Can We Support Transformation at Your Organization?” Listen to the podcast:  Part 1 | Part 2

By Maggie Glasgow
Philanos Chair-elect

Many giving circles are created by and/or reside within a foundation – a community foundation, a woman’s foundation, a private foundation, or some other regional or national foundation.  The reasons are many, and the benefits can be mutually rewarding.  Circles who have been in longstanding relationships with their foundation offer the following reasons to affiliate:

Why, then, is not every giving circle hosted?  Less than half of the Philanos affiliates are hosted, and the issue of hosted vs. independent 501 (c) 3 status remains a perennial topic for webinars, conferences, the member forum and questions to our board members.  The truth is, in every relationship, problems crop up.  Some can be resolved with hard work and new understandings.  Others dissolve and a breakup occurs.  Where are the pressure points – the place where relationships between host and giving circle can crack?

Recently, Susan Benford, Chair of Philanos, began collecting information for peer-to-peer sharing from circles who were transitioning from a hosted status with their community foundations to becoming their own independent 501 (c) 3.   Two affiliates, the Roanoke Women’s Foundation (RWF), Roanoke, VA, and Del Mar Women’s Giving Collective (DMWGC), Del Mar, CA, participated in documenting their stories.  Kathy Stockburger of RWF and Lani Curtis of DMWGC each shared insights with us as to how their journey unfolded.   Their responses to a series of questions reveals lessons learned in forging new paths.

What motivated your transition from being hosted to securing 501 (c) 3 status and how long did it take?

RWF transitioned from a field of interest (FOI) fund at the Roanoke Community Foundation because of a desire to be autonomous, based primarily on financial considerations.  The group was doing most of their own administrative work already and felt they could reduce costs charged to them by the foundation related to events, office supplies, software, etc.  They also wanted to allow their members full donations to be tax deductible (including the admin fee).  Finally, they listed a concern about grant allocation decisions needing approval by the foundation.  Although they had never had a grant decision overturned, hypothetically the foundation had that power.  RWF board members recall the topic of becoming a separate entity had been mentioned on occasion in the past, but it wasn’t until 2020 that the board spent an entire year in study and discussion before voting on the transition.  The final process was smooth and relatively quick – they applied for status in December of 2020 and received the IRS determination letter in April of 2021.

DMWGC transitioned from a donor advised fund (DAF) at the Rancho Santa Fe Foundation.  They were the second women’s giving circle that foundation agreed to host, but shortly after taking them on, the foundation said they could no longer process any of their administrative expenses. They felt the decision was made for them by the foundation, and they had to become their own 501 (c) 3 if they wanted to continue to operate.  They did so quite quickly, between November 2019 and January 2020.  They also received a grant from a local business to help them set up.  Lani Curtis shared that their members immediately realized the full tax benefit of their donations, and the circle felt that the new status gave them greater legitimacy when recruiting prospective members.

While a member of the foundation what actions had the host performed for your circle?

Since Roanoke had a longer standing relationship than Del Mar with their foundation, the RWF reported that the foundation had had handled member donations and reconciliation for granting, maintained a member data base, sent tax receipt letters, approved allocations for grantees, and originally shared software. 

DMWGC stated that RSF Foundation had originally collected their donations and distributed grants as voted on by their own advisory council, distributed tax receipts to members and reimbursed approved expenses to members or vendors.

How was the change communicated to members?

Both organizations said they communicated directly with membership.  Since Roanoke had more time for their process, they communicated when they first had the idea years prior, during the year of study by the board, and to a greater extent when the board decided to move on it.  Communications included benefits as well as challenges, and occurred in newsletters, direct mail, and virtual events. 

Del Mar communicated once the advisory council decision was made and got no pushback.  It was a very minimal change for their members, just a different donor name on their check.

How much did it cost to attain a 501 (c) 3 ruling?

Roanoke paid attorney’s and filing fees of about $2,000.  Del Mar paid about $1,000, but a member attorney did the work pro bono.

What new expenses do you anticipate your circle will have?

RWF anticipates about $1,000 in annual insurance costs, including risk mitigation for social events; increased accounting fees (including filing 990) of up to $5,000, software fee of $6,500 annually, and administrative costs for website, IT, stationery, postage that were not estimated.

DMWGC has, so far, only had the filing costs.  They are a small circle, relatively new, and are still absorbing costs through volunteer help.

What was most helpful in making the transition?  What was most challenging?

Roanoke felt that their intentionality and adequate study beforehand paid off, as well as having knowledgeable legal guidance.  Keeping major stakeholders, like founders and board members, informed and engaged was important.

The challenges for the RWF included following regulations in a timely manner, becoming very scrupulous in document retention, financial reports, anything to do with the tax-exempt status, and knowing which nonprofit benefit entities to join.

Del Mar felt that their biggest challenge was that the transition was out of necessity, not a decision they had originally planned to make.  They are a new group with younger members who are actively involved in work and childrearing, so they do not feel as if they have a deep bench of working volunteers to do the heavy lifting of running a nonprofit.  They are currently actively seeking a working relationship with another foundation.

What sort of relationship do you retain with your former host?

RWF reports they remain on excellent terms with their previous host, the Roanoke Community Foundation.  Immediately after their departure they hosted an appreciation luncheon for the foundation staff to cement those feelings and that relationship.  Since leaving, RWF has embarked on a strategic planning process to provide new structure that will allow them to be sustainable and resource their administrative costs.

Kathy Stockburger, a nonprofit consultant, and member of Roanoke Women’s Foundation, sums up their new status in this way: 

            “We are carefully straddling the line between resourcing our costs to do what we do – allocate over $350k annually – and not be perceived as competition by our grantees.  We are not a fundraising organization and feel strongly that we need to navigate this prudently.  We can, however, accept gifts beyond our member donations, engage sponsors for events, and explore a friends-type gift initiative for those who do not wish to become members… There is no model fitting every giving group.  Plan strategically.  It is a lot of work.”