At meetings, Lange said, "we talk about women things. We talk about our families. We talk about things that we might not necessarily talk about if it were a couples thing or if a lot of men were around. . . . We really like a camaraderie of other women."
Affluent African American women are beginning to turn to circles, although not yet in great numbers. About 5 percent of the circles surveyed identified themselves as African American, and 12 percent said they were racially or ethnically mixed.
Kathy Woodward, left, Cathy Lange and Kelly Nakamoto participate in the Angels Network. Lange, its president, says she prefers the group's single-sex status. "I think the dynamics shift when we include men," she says.
(Andrea Bruce Woodall -- The Washington Post)
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Starting a Giving Circle
• Decide on the giving circle's mission and focus. Some founders decide these, while others recruit members and build consensus. Giving circles can address a single issue or multiple issues. Members also need to decide whether the focus should be local, regional or international.
• Define the form and structure. Giving circles average 20 to 30 members but range from fewer than a dozen to more than 400. Donors may come together with no consistent membership, attend every meeting and make decisions by consensus, or have a more formal structure.
• Determine the level of commitment. Circles tend to be more effective when members make minimum commitments for at least a year. Annual contributions range from $150 to $20,000 and up. Some groups require just a modest minimum, while others require set amounts.
For more information, go to www.givingforum.org/givingcircles.
SOURCE: New Ventures in Philanthropy
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Locally, the Washington Area Women's Foundation recently put together a 26-member giving circle for African American women who have pooled $100,000 to give to area nonprofit groups over the next two years.
African American women "have long been a critical cornerstone to communities and families in Washington," said Anne Mosle, president of the women's foundation. Their leadership in charitable giving is "critical to the future of philanthropy" in the area, she added.
The popularity of giving circles has risen for several reasons, the study found: increasingly affluent households with money to spend on charity; the rising wealth of women and a growing number of donors who want to know more about where their charitable dollars are going.
"Sometimes you feel like you're just writing checks," said Leah Rampy, 55, co-chairman of the Rainmakers, a two-year-old giving circle whose 20 members pooled $80,000 to give to charity. "Or you feel like your money is being scattered out among so many different organizations that it's not making a real impact."
Most groups have established themselves as actual charities, or 501(c)3 organizations, for tax purposes, and some are branching out past local charity, the survey found. A Seattle giving circle, World Venture Partners, focuses on international philanthropy.
Giving circles are getting more sophisticated about where they put their money, often doing extensive research before they donate.
To decide how to allocate its thousands, the Rainmakers set up an elaborate system to examine the finances and track records of charities.
Members toured each organization with lists of questions and then voted on which groups to fund. The circle moved slowly -- donating $30,000 its first year and then $50,000 its second.
"We tried to get a real hands-on sense of the organization," Rampy said. The circle ended up funding an after-school program for boys and girls in the District and an education and mentoring program run by the Family Support Center in Bethesda.
The Women's Giving Circle in Howard County established a $7,000 scholarship fund last year at Howard Community College for low- and moderate-income women. And it sent $4,000 to the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center, which used some of the money to help single mothers with car repair bills.
Many giving circles also include a dollop of personal involvement in local charities.
In addition to giving out grants totaling $25,000 last year, the 70 members of the year-old Giving Circle of Hope visit senior citizen homes, hold coat drives and began a literacy program at a Reston homeless shelter.
This year, said organizer Linda Strup, 47, the group aims to market itself as an adviser to corporations' philanthropic giving. "We plan to keep doing more," she said.
