Back in October 2018, the Bath Women’s Fund was launched. This is a giving circle that I co-founded together with Bath-based fundraising expert, Isobel Michael. Isobel had seen a giving circle in action when in Melbourne and I had lectured on them at the University of Kent so we both were inspired to create our own.
The giving circle model emerged in its modern form in America in 1990s. They come in different shapes and sizes but all share these five characteristics:
Individuals pool and collectively give away resources.
Circles provide a means for educating members about philanthropy, non-profits and local issues.
They offer ‘social with purpose’ opportunities for members.
They engage members in the grant process and sometimes in providing non-profits with other support such as advice or mentoring.
They do not support a single non-profit exclusively. Members choose a number of organisations that reflect their interests and priorities.
As a grant maker for many years, I have privileged access to charities and those working for social change. My main wish for our new giving circle was for more women to share in that knowledge and experience.
We started recruiting members in 2019 and are delighted to now have 42 pioneer members who put £25 per month (£20 + gift aid for most; some give more) into our collective fund. At our (inevitably online) Awards Evening in July we gave out our first ever grants: £10,000 to Mentoring Plus for their fabulous girls group and £1,000 each for Julian House and SARSAS (Somerset & Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support). And along the way we have brought women together to meet, share food and hear from local charity leaders including from the Nelson Trust, Voices, Bath City Farm, Southside Family Project, Women in Sport, and Bath City Football Club Foundation.
Here are my top reflections from our first full year …
1. We are right to be funding women and girls
All our funds are going into supporting women and girls. The Women’s Philanthropy Institute’s Women & Girls Index found that organisations dedicated to women and girls received just 1.6% of US charitable donations in 2016. Women and girls are adversely affected by the climate crisis and the pandemic and its consequences and so it is important for us to add our collective funds to help address this imbalance.
2. Keeping it all voluntary is challenging (and good)
We decided early on not to have paid staff as we did not want to compete with local charities in raising funds. This means everything we have achieved is with no budget – which can be tricky and slow things down at times. It does mean that all our members’ contributions go direct to local causes and it has opened us up to countless acts of generosity – St Johns Foundation supported our launch and web presence and manage the finances for us; we have been provided with free venues to meet in and our members bring food and drink to share to our potluck events.
3. We are in good company
Since we started, two more giving circles have started: Impact100 in London and the Cornwall Women’s Fund. It feels good to know we are part of a growing and global movement.
4. We are getting some things right
We wanted to bring women together, for them to learn, make a difference and have fun. The feedback from our members has been really encouraging:
“Bath Women’s Fund is that unique combination of raising awareness and making one feel engaged in the local community, whilst being great fun at the same time. Joining Bath Women’s Fund has also provided the social aspect of meeting wonderful Bath women of all ages and experience. It has been an incredibly welcoming group.”
Our members have been involved in voting on the theme of our giving, reviewing applications and mentoring the charity finalists. And the charities seeking funding appreciated this approach:
“The level of engagement we saw from members during the awards ceremony was brilliant. With some funding programmes I receive the impression that the funder is doing all they can to eliminate charities from the running to reduce the number of eligible applications, but with Bath Women’s Fund it very much felt as though you were rooting for us all the way.”
5. We still have things to learn
We still need to improve the diversity of our membership to make sure that we are truly including women from underrepresented backgrounds. We deliberately set our contribution rate lower than most giving circles to make taking part as accessible as we could. We are looking to develop a sponsorship scheme with companies supporting membership at reduced rates for their employees or members ‘paying it forward’ to enable other women to join. And we are reviewing our grant process to see if we can remove any steps to reduce the time spent by those applying for our funds.
I have always known that women coming together is a powerful force for good and this experience has only reinforced that. Our aim for the year ahead is for more women to get involved – we want to get to 100 and then we are on our way to a movement. With needs more pressing than ever – we would love to be giving out even more money next summer (ideally in person and with cake this time).
To join as a member: https://www.stjohnsbath.org.uk/bath-womens-fund/
To offer us support, venues, to talk about sponsoring places: info@bathwomensfund.org.uk