What defines collective giving?

As an organization whose sole mission is to catalyze the field of collective giving, we think about this question a lot.

There has been hockey stick growth in interest and participation in giving circles, collaborative funds, women’s funds, Giving Projects, and so many other models over the past decade. New offshoot models of collective giving groups continue to grow, and almost every day we stumble upon a collective giving group with their own unique approach. The beauty of collective, collaborative, community-driven philanthropy is that by virtue of the many, many voices and ideas gathered around the same table; there is no possibility of a definitional model. Under the banner of collectivism, there is no exact taxonomy of what counts, instead there are countless permutations of how to give of your treasure, time, and talent; countless permutations of the focus across issues, gift size, geography, demographics, and interests that a group can focus on. ‘When you know one, you know one’ is often what we say about every giving circle, collaborative fund, flow fund, women’s fund, mutual aid group, etc. because it isn’t about the form, it’s about the function: making a greater impact together than we can alone. The complex multitude is what makes this field so exciting, and the exact salve for the polycrisis our world is facing – a group for every challenge, not the perfect group to fix all challenges equally.

At Philanthropy Together, a field catalyst for collective giving globally, we’ve been hyper-focused on elevating the profile and participation in one such model – giving circles – over the first three years since our 2020 founding. Now in 2023, we are digging further into this same question – what defines collective giving? – to take our ecosystem support role to the countless forms of collective giving.

As we take this next step, one focus in particular is on collaborative funds given the rapid expansion of that particular model of collective giving over the past handful of years. Aligned with many other models of collective giving, a collaborative fund typically includes a group of high-capacity donors or institutional funders who pool their funding in order to make a greater impact together, often with the goal of systemic change given the large-scale funding being moved – upwards of $2 to 3 billion dollars a year right now, with the potential to grow to $15 billion a year without any changes to capacity. The opportunity is huge, and collective action is part of the core intent both on how donors come together but also in how ecosystems of nonprofits, movements, and social change leaders are collectively working together.

To ground this curiosity and next phase of work in lived experience, we hired directly from the field of collaborative funds: Rebecca Darwent who co-founded the Foundation for Black Communities (with colleagues Liban Abokor, Djaka Blais-Amare, and Joseph Smith) and Sarah Zak Borgman who led Skoll World Forum.

We’ve since spoken to dozens of collaborative funds over the last few months asking about their dreams and challenges. What rose to the surface so clearly was the root desire for collective action to build a new world through collective giving, even when the model and language each group uses is so different.

We learned about how Right Relations Collaborative, an Indigenous-led group in Canada whose decision-making is led by The Aunties Council, only accepts a select number of funding partners and take them on deeply intentional learning journeys as part of the funding process; we learned of Hawaii People’s Fund’s deep commitment to change not charity through their ‘Activist-Advised Grantmaking’ practice and how they also run a Giving Project as part of their fundraising model; we learned of how Pillars Fund’s work started as a Muslim giving circle and grew into a collaborative fund which now includes narrative and culture change work to tell more authentic, accurate, complex stories of Muslim communities in the U.S.

Across these and many other calls and webinars, we learned of the similar challenges and opportunities collaborative funds are facing – many of the same challenges and opportunities that other collective giving models face, even when scale and focus are vastly different: how do we equitably flow funding with community leadership at the helm? How do we manage simultaneously raising funds as intermediaries while moving as much money as possible to meet the demands of our times? How do we partner with nonprofits and movements on the ground and elevate their stories and capacity without centering ourselves or removing the connection between donor and grantee? How can we facilitate donor learning and engagement for deeper action without harming or tokenizing those leading the work?

Through storytelling, awareness building, convenings, resources, and community building, Philanthropy Together will support this growing field of collaborative funds to explore their own curiosity to meet these challenges.

We embark this year newly inspired by how these groups are challenging dominant frameworks of how philanthropy happens and uplifts the core promise of collective giving: it’s a vehicle for collective action to build a more just world. The heart of the model is collaborative, networked, and relational. We all have a role to play, and it will take all of us.

Sara Lomelin is CEO of Philanthropy Together, and Isis Krause is CSO of Philanthropy Together.