Giving Circle: Philanthropy guided by collective intelligence and feminine principles

Giving circles emerged as an innovation in philanthropy in the early 1990s and have expanded exponentially since the 2000s, particularly in the US. Popularised by Washington Women’s Foundation’s founder Colleen S. Willoughby as ‘the way women give,’ this methodology emphasises collaboration, shared decision-making, and community-building to redistribute wealth, inherently challenging traditional models of patriarchy, financial power, and decision-making.

Be The Earth has been running a Giving Circle programme for two years. We convene six women, all activists and thought leaders, to collectively distribute funds to individuals, projects, and communities.

This approach prioritizes nurturing, inclusivity, and relationship-building to democratise the redistribution of wealth, minimise bureaucracy, and allow funds to reach people and projects beyond the scope of traditional philanthropy.

This webinar will share our Giving Circle methodology, learnings, insights, struggles, and successes, aiming to inspire and catalyse further change towards dismantling existing power structures and a philanthropy that truly serves the communities it claims to support.

We’ll provide a brief introduction to the programme then you’ll hear from our fellows about how this initiative works in practice. At the end, there’ll be plenty of time for questions.

To attend, please RSVP to receive a link to access the webinar.

We hope you can join us for the webinar and we look forward to seeing you there. 

If you have any questions about this event, please email jessica@betheearth.foundation

Everyone is warmly welcome to attend this webinar but please note: this webinar will be exploring the Giving Circle methodology and there will be no funding opportunities or financial support offered in this session.