02/12/2026
I’m just returning from a powerful few days at the convening, and I’ve been reflecting on how moved I was by the quiet power in the room. In my work, I’m often in rooms filled with foundation staff who spend a great deal of time and energy on complex mechanisms and metrics of grantmaking.
But this week, in this room, I sat among a sea of women who were quietly gathering their neighbors around modest kitchen tables to invest in their communities, often raising and investing more than many foundations, without any fanfare.
If you have read “The Big We” by then you already know that giving circles are happening everywhere, in various forms, in all kinds of communities, and often going by different names, from Korean geh to Mexican tandas to Indonesian arisan. What they share is an underlying sense of community care.
In this moment—as federal grants have been taken away, aid agencies disbanded, corporate grants shrinking out of concerns about DEI, and many individual funders feeling frozen—these giving circles are the steady current ensuring that their communities are safe and cared for, and that nonprofits get the funding they need.
I left this convening so inspired by this network of women, and by the reminder that small groups of people are indeed what creates change.
