A growing circle of giving

WRITTEN BY STEPHANIE BOUCHARD

At any given time, Eastern Area Agency on Aging’s Meals on Wheels program has a wait list of 300 to 350 people. It’s the one program of EAAA’s that is always in need of support, said Christopher Hill, EAAA’s communications and development director. 

Earlier this year, the agency was able to begin providing meals to 17 Bangor-area people on that wait list because of a $24,000 donation from a unique community-led fundraising effort that is part of a worldwide philanthropy trend. 

100 Neighbors Who Care – Penobscot Valley, the organization facilitating the donation to EAAA, is a giving circle — a philanthropic model in which a group of people get together to pool their funds in support of a chosen cause. 

Giving circles are a form of collective giving that has steadily gained popularity across the globe since the early 2000s, and is projected to double in the next five years, according to a report released in January by the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy of Grand Valley State University in Michigan.

According to the report, in the U.S. between 2017 and 2023, there was a 140% growth in giving circle participation and monetary donations, with nearly 4,000 giving circles totaling approximately 370,000 participants donating more than $3.1 billion.

100 Neighbors Who Care – Penobscot Valley formed in 2021 with an initial group of just under 100 people. With the purpose of creating community by gathering members together to raise money to support nonprofits in Penobscot Valley, the group also increases awareness of the work these organizations are doing in the community, said the group’s cofounder, Dan Moore, a retired Air Force command chief master sergeant. 

Group members commit to donating $100 each at a one-hour meeting four times a year. At those meetings, three nonprofits nominated by members of the group and randomly selected at the previous meeting, have 10 minutes each to share with the members what their organization does and how they’d use the donation. 

After the presentations, the members vote for the nonprofit they will support that quarter. The organizations not selected at that meeting are immediately eligible for future opportunities. The organization that is selected is not eligible for another chance for two years.

Almost more important than the financial donation, says EAAA’s Hill, is the opportunity to present to the group. 

“I’m thankful that we got [the donation], but to be able to share with a room of 200 to 250 supporters about what we do, there’s value in that itself,” Hill said. 

Matt Dexter agrees. Dexter is the executive director of Christine B. Foundation, a Bangor-based nonprofit that provides healthy food and nutrition support to people in eastern Maine newly diagnosed with cancer. The organization received a $19,500 donation from the group. 

“You have a chance to educate 200 or 250 people immediately and that ripples,” Dexter said. 

He said he’s had people who didn’t talk to him at his presentation approach him later. “I think one thing that is underrated is just how close-knit this community is,” he said. “Being a recipient of the check is one thing, [but] what’s really powerful is the network and the community and the values that they’re sharing that ripples through all the organizations’ missions.”

Today, 100 Neighbors Who Care – Penobscot Valley has 239 members and, just before its final meeting of the year, had raised more than $353,000 over the course of 18 one-hour meetings. Some members have even begun volunteering for organizations that have presented to the group. 

“I’ve been a member of this community long enough to know that there are many generous people,” Moore said, “and I just felt that the [giving circle] would flourish in the Penobscot Valley region.”social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.

B Corps use the power of business to do more than seek profit,” according to its website. “They use their profits and growth to positively impact their stakeholders — and the planet.”

To learn more about 100 Neighbors Who Care – Penobscot Valley, go to 100neighbors.org.