A Giving Circle’s Journey: The Black Benefactors

A new report issued last week by Jumpstart, “Connected to Give: Community Circles,” finds that giving circles bolster giving in diverse communities, particularly among African-Americans.  More than 1 in 5 black donors have participated in a giving circle, a philanthropic vehicle where members pool their monies and then decide collectively how to give it away. “Giving circles teach us how, when philanthropic institutions don’t roll out the red carpet, people create their own ways in,” said Dr. Shawn Landres, CEO & Director of Research at Jumpstart via a press release. “Highly connected people become deeply committed givers, and it’s in giving circles that we see people creating philanthropic traditions that speak to their identity and community.”

BlackGivesBack.com founder Tracey Webb, also the founder of The Black Benefactors (BB) giving circle in Washington, DC, shares her journey creating the BB in a blog post for Resource Generation.  To date the BB has granted $20,000 to ten nonprofit organizations in the DC region including its most recent grant award of $6,000 to Dreaming Out Loud, Inc., a nonprofit whose mission is to inspire and build a more ethical society through human development, community engagement and social enterprise.

To learn more about giving circles and community philanthropy, make plans to attend the 10th annual Community Investment Network conference in Durham, NC, October 2-5, 2014.  Registration is now available at http://www.thecommunityinvestment.org/2014-conference/.

Photo: Kea Taylor/Imagine Photography