“In today’s world where individual giving often means writing a check, giving circles offer a more participatory form of grantmaking” – GRANTCRAFT a service of Foundation Center

Developed as part of a series of stories shared through the Pittsburgh Philanthropy Project, Together We Give is a case study featuring Sankofa Fund of Southwestern Pennsylvania.  The study sheds light on the dynamic power that giving circles have to impact how philanthropy is defined and practiced.  Mark Lewis, President and CEO of POISE Foundation notes:

“One of the benefits of giving circles is that they can pretty much define themselves.” This means that people from a variety of lived experiences can join together under whatever unifying characteristic feels most appropriate. For some, geography is the coalescer, for others, a shared passion for an issue area. As Mark explains it, “the beauty and flexibility of a giving circle is that you can have ten giving circles in a geographic location and they can all focus on different things.”

Visit the GRANTCRAFT site to download the case study and learn more about how #givingcircles are contributing to the evolution of philanthropy.