Start or Join a Giving Circle!
- Nitin Deckha
- Sep 17
- 2 min read
Idea 28 for 2025
A few weeks ago, I spoke at the NAAAP Leadership Convention. Like all other speakers, I received a copy of Hali Lee’s book, The Big We.
I had a chance to read it recently and was so inspired by its passionate and principled invitation to re-imagine philanthropy and fundraising from the ground up. Lee lays out her decades-long work in philanthropy and in creating “giving circles.” Giving circles involve friends and acquaintances coming together, often over food and drink, to contribute small or less-small amounts, which gets pooled together and donated for a shared cause, person, initiative, etc.
Lee describes that’s as an antidote to “Big Phil,” her euphemism for technocratic, hierarchical, metrics-driven, white male and billionaire-dominated conventional approaches to philanthropy and fundraising in the US. Giving circles, such as the Asian Women Giving Circle that Lee started and is still engaged with, reflects a very different approach, one that Lee stems from many culturally, religiously, and spiritually diverse traditions of donating small amounts as a form of mutual aid. In my own cultural context, it is the “kitty” party with community-minded purpose.
Lee writes that in the era of increasing wealth inequality in the US (and arguably elsewhere), giving circles as a form of mutual aid have the power to bring people together intentionally for a shared cause, reinforcing bonds and ties in an era of loneliness, detachment, and societal breakdown. Lee’s writing is full of stories and examples of the people that she has met and worked with to generate giving circles and anecdotes of some of the many people who have benefitted. Lee highlights donors who are behind-the-scenes, who through hard work as well as inheritance, made mutual aid and active involvement in giving circles a priority, as a way to further their own goals to help others and uplift communities.
One of the themes of the NAAAP Leadership Convention was to create spaces of belonging, and indeed, after putting down Lee’s book, I am convinced that giving circles have the power to do so. It left me feeling stimulated with how I create and/or get involved in a giving circle, especially as I enter an autumn season where I am actively involved in fundraising for a variety of my volunteer engagements.
I encourage you to give it a read! And then, start or join a giving circle in your community!
Comments