Do you receive many requests for money from local organizations?
Do you wonder if your donations are really used locally?
Would you like to have more say in deciding how your charitable dollars are spent?
Are you sure that 100% of your contributions go to the non-profit of your choice?
Would you like to learn firsthand about the real needs of our communities?
What is a Giving Circle?
A giving circle is a philanthropic group whose individual members pool their dollars and together decide how to distribute those dollars through grants to non-profit organizations and causes.
Giving circles provide members with opportunities to learn more about their community; to become involved and strengthen their community connections; and to reach out and give back to the community in which they live.
Giving circles are a national phenomenon. There are now more than 400 giving circle organizations, which involve many thousands of women who collectively give back millions of dollars to their communities every year.
The Maine Women’s Giving Tree now includes about 75 members who live in communities stretching from Freeport to Wiscasset. Since 2009, we have contributed more than $350,000 to non-profit organizations serving the women, children and families of Midcoast Maine.
The knowledge that your pooled charitable dollars will have a greater impact in your community than smaller individual contributions might have
The opportunity for you to learn more about the ways your community is responding to a broad range of human service needs
The chance to work in common cause with a group of dynamic, community-spirited women
The choice to participate primarily through your financial contribution or also to serve as a member of a committee helping us to carry out our mission
