How To Start a Gving Circle

Starting a Giving Circle for your cause

A fun way to raise money!

Contact Craig Litwin below

for a free consultation on

starting a giving circle!

What is a giving circle?

A giving circle is a group of like-minded people who come together, pool contributions, and decide as a group how to distribute them.
It is modeled after Impact 100 groups (100 women philantropists who contribute significant funds towards a nonprofit for a major contribution)
Annual contributions can be small or large, depending on the organization's needs and goals.
Sebastopol West 100 is the newest giving circle in Sonoma County, California. Their annual dues are $1,300 per year, and each member gets a vote for annual grant distributions to applying area-serving nonprofits.
Check out SW100.org to learn about the incredible giving circle formed in the Sebastopol West Area. Launched in 2025, it took the community by a storm giving $295k away to 8 area-serving nonprofits in 2025.

Some tips to starting a giving circle: Get a group of five or so of your friends together who have at least one of the three W's of any good working board member, Work, Wisdom, or Wealth. Set your rules (bylaws), goals, and membership levels. Determine a good fiscal sponsor to help manage the funds, reporting annual aggregated contributions to donors, and to make grant distributions. This oversite will cost a small administrative fee for your organization, but allows you to be efficient. Put together a list of prospective members, provide them membership forms (make sure to have a sponsorship program too!), and build your membership. Have fun making a name, logo, website, and remember to earn some media to showcase your good efforts.