How We Work
A giving circle is a member driven organization of peers. Everyone donates $100. Everyone has the opportunity to nominate an organization to receive our collective funds. Everyone gathers to learn about our nominees, and vote for the organization of their choosing. The organization receiving the most votes gets our funding. Whatever we raise above $10,000 is shared between the two runner up organizations. Everybody wins.
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Simple. Powerful.
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Many love getting together to meet and welcome new members, share experiences, learn about and discuss the nominees, and come up with ways to help beyond donating money. But many also choose to participate in their own way, donating, learning, and voting from home. That works too.
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Donate
We use the Grapevine platform to host our donation processing. Grapevine is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting Giving Circles - accepting credit card donations, issuing tax receipts, and sending our total donation to the selected nonprofit we choose at our Learn & Vote gathering.
100% of member donations go to the nonprofits (members are asked to pay a nominal processing fee of roughly 3% of the donated amount).
Nominate
Every member donating $100 has the opportunity to nominate a nonprofit for consideration by the group.
Nominees must be a 501.c.3 organization in good standing. They must offer services to under resourced women, children and families in Massachusetts.
A total of three organizations are considered each giving cycle. When more than three are nominated, we use a random selection tool, similar to pulling names from a hat, to come up with our three finalists.
Learn & Vote
Each cycle we gather to learn about our nominated nonprofits and vote for the recipient. Members attend in person if they can, or by Zoom if that is preferable. For those that can not make it to the meeting, options to vote electronically ahead of time.
At our Learn & Vote gatherings, nominators present their organizations and answer member questions. Following the discussion, members cast their votes. The organization with the most votes will receive our grant.