An emerging philanthropic trend: the 'giving circle'

Here in Raleigh, NGAAP, a 16-member coed circle, helped buy renovated computers for after-school programs for poor black students. In Boston, the Kitchen Table Fund, a 14-woman giving circle, recently helped Muslim women immigrants get established in the US. The Tend and Befriend circle in Sacramento mixes "girl time" with good deeds. Most recently, the group spent a day wrapping presents for homeless people in the city. "Girls in the group have pet volunteer projects they put forward," says Susan Hatler of Elk Grove, Calif. "It's not work, but a good time, and we're doing something good at the same time."

The allure of such groups at times resembles that of the book clubs that proliferated through the 1990s, says Jessica Bearman, deputy director at the Forum on Regional Associations of Grantmakers - "a desire for community, but, at the same time, this American desire to do things on your own. It's both collective and independent."

As a cultural catalyst, the sewing circle is rooted in the efforts of lay women who worked through their churches and ladies auxiliaries to meet parishes' needs. With conversations set to the rhythm of clicking needles, the groups began popping up in the colonies as early as the mid-1700s.

Today, though, experts say many women have lost touch with the simple pleasures of potlucks, "down time," and exercising their communal instincts to do good, say some experts. Giving to friends' "pet projects" is one way to ensure that gifts aren't wasted or spent unwisely.

"With the proliferation of charities and charitable appeals coming down around us, it is difficult to make choices about which ones are best," says Linda Lampkin, who runs the National Center on Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute. "Getting one person to do research and present it to 20 others in a pleasant environment is a more comforting way to do it."

For charities looking for money, women, especially, are a wellspring: Female entrepreneurs give 5.2 percent of their income to charity, compared to the 1.3 percent that large corporations typically donate, according to the Women's Funding Network. And in a 2003 Chronicle of Philanthropy study, single mothers with incomes over $50,000 gave about five times as much to charities as did men of similar incomes living on their own.

Recognizing this, the United Way sponsored a conference a few years ago called "Women's Impact on Philanthropy: Numbers too big to ignore."

In addition to reverberating in the halls of institutional philanthropy, giving circles are holding charities to new, more personal standards. Instead of taking applications, members scour their communities and come up with worthwhile endeavors that will have visible effects - a sort of democratization of giving.

"I know doggone well that [charities] are impressed," says Ms. Babb. "They call to apply, but I just say, 'Well, it's really our women who are searching for the right program, and if you've got it, I'm sure they'll find it.' "

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