Women's Circle Privately Funds Local Women and Girls

Back in 1999 over 144 women in my community on the West Coast joined me in donating $5,000 every three months for a period of a year, then we extended it to another year, to help other women get on their feet, pay off bills, address college costs for kids, get that new car their family really needs. It was given without application and a total of $40,000 was given to each recipient. One recipient was as young as 21. She had accomplished incredible things such as beginning college at 14, studying biochemistry, being accepted for her PhD at the age of 21, in a foreign country that only accepts 5 foreigners a year, while helping (for free) a local series of animal care shelters.

Eventually we found that all the women we gave to, then turned around and gave $5,000 to someone else. Within 2 years we had grown to over 1,000 women who had each given at least $5,000 each, some multiple times as originally agreed upon. The only exception was the 21 year old who needed every penny we could scrape together. She is now finished with her full 5 year vet degree and is studying the swine flu and other such potential epidemic diseases.

The real joy of this giving club was in seeing the healthy change that came gradually to the one who received the money. We each knew good candidates in our community. Each one of the founder gifting women suggested candidates, knowing full well how much and what they really needed. The only condition was that one of us, usually the one who had proposed the candidate for this program, did commit to help the recipient deal with the gift. Most of the women had such short sights that they had to be educated to see greater potential for the money than just to buy things right now and spend it all.

We generally requested the recipient to delete any/all credit card debt and redefine credit card use for the recipient. Getting out of debt caused the women to think differently about things. But we also wanted to see her use the money in a way to promote an income for herself that would work around her schedule, from investment studies to promoting whatever skill she had to the level of business. Any of the women who originally got on board as ones who gave funds - had made an agreement to advise the recipient in her own arena of expertise - gratis.

The net result was seeing well over 300 women's lives change gradually over the year. They began thinking investment and the possibility to fund their kids college education without loans, long term. As more people received , more people got on board in the gifting and in the free advising. After the first two years, we, the originators, handed it off to others and let the project carry itself on by the newcomers. I am not in touch with the people who are involved these days as I have moved since then.

The biggest change I saw in all of the recipients was to realize the income possibilities they could realize for themselves and their families as well as to see these women go debt-free and lose their credit card shopping addiction. Having something they felt passion back in their lives, the shopping addiction seemed to just fall away.

Ours was a private circle. We did not have to adhere to any community regulations As far as tax law is concerned, one person can give any other person up to $11,000/yr (now I think it is more) before it becomes a tax issue for either side. Being that we were giving $5K to each individual at any time, that was not a problem. It was fairly random and we really liked participating in this random way of helping. Knowing we did not know if this was the absolute best thing we could do with the money, but wanting to do something, we charged forward in this random manner. We actively sought to keep it that way.

In Gainesville, Florida, they have done something similar for three years now. Different numbers, similar concept. In the last three years the Gainesville Community Foundation has given away $275,000 to women and girls "to teach them life skills / job skills" .

When they began in Gainesville, the goal of the Women's Giving Circle was to find 50 women pledge $1,000 for two years. They found 80 people who wanted to join and now the total number is 120 women. $17,000 has gone to Girls Place, an after school program center for girls and summer camp program. The WGC has given $10,000 for Habitat for Humanity to help with the 5th house Women Build plans on building. Currently they have 20 other agencies applying for funds from the Women's Giving Circle.

The women are looking to fund the area that will deliver the most impact. This is really the toughest decision in giving funds to anyone.

Private foundations as well as federal and state and county sources are available for getting your dream off the ground. Look into it. Ask around. Google things on the web. Never ever give up.