Giving Circle Funds
When you partner with us to host your giving circle, you maintain your focus on building relationships and determining where and when to direct your pooled funds. Our expert, local team handles the rest.
APIs RISE
Sustain Your Giving Circle’s Independence & Momentum
Whether you’re a small group of friends, a block of close-knit neighbors, or a team of professionals rallying around a cause, hosting your giving circle at the Sacramento Region Community Foundation makes it easy to give back, together. Here’s how it works.
Give
Members of your giving circle make charitable contributions of cash, appreciated securities, or other assets to support your Giving Circle Fund.
Each contribution is tax-deductible and pooled into a shared fund that reflects your group’s collective values and giving goals. We also provide simplified recordkeeping and easy access to giving information through our online donor portal.
Grow
Contributions are pooled and professionally invested, growing tax-free to increase your collective grantmaking power over time.
Your Giving Circle Fund is invested according to your wishes. We provide regular fund statements and manage the administration, so your members can stay focused on learning, connection, and impact.
Grant
Put your collective philanthropy into action by collaboratively deciding which nonprofits to support.
Your members recommend grants through our online portal, and we take care of the rest — issuing grant checks, maintaining records, and providing guidance when needed. As an added benefit, your fund’s support fees are reinvested locally, helping strengthen nonprofit capacity and multiply your giving circle’s impact across the Sacramento region.
You determine your giving circle’s passion and pattern, and we provide the support you need to:
✅ Accept a wide variety of gifts to support your circle’s mission
✅ Enjoy seamless administration of gifts and grants
✅ Grow your philanthropic impact via prudent investments
✅ Receive personalized service from our professional, local team
✅ Re-invest support fees back into the Sacramento region, rather than shareholder pockets
✅ Enhance visibility with branding opportunities and programs like Big Day of Giving
✅ Access to tools and resources, including meeting space
✅ Connect with like-minded philanthropists at exclusive events
Partner with a local team dedicated to the success of your giving circle. With over 40 years of experience as the capital region’s trusted philanthropic resource — including for the giving circles below — we’re here to help.
Create Your Fund
Submit the form below to begin the process of opening your Giving Circle Fund. Our team will follow-up with next steps.
Ready to learn more? We’re happy to present the benefits of establishing a Giving Circle Fund to your group. Schedule a meeting to get started and contact us at any time with questions.
A giving circle is when a group of people aligned to a specific cause, geography or identity, donate a certain amount of money, pool those funds together, and collaboratively decide which nonprofits will receive their collective donation. They then do it all again the next period. Giving circles connect like-minded people, create greater impact for the causes that members care about, and build an even stronger community in the process.
Hosting your giving circle with a Giving Circle Fund at the Sacramento Region Community Foundation makes the process easy. You’ll be free to focus time and energy on cultivating your giving circle’s impact, while we manage the administrative tasks of investing your funds, distributing grants according to your wishes, and providing statements and tax reporting.
Giving circles can be created around a community or a common cause and can be made up of those with similar or varied backgrounds. Anyone can start a giving circle — from a local group that wants to help their community, to a person passionate about a cause seeking to amplify their impact with others, and employees at a company wanting to connect by giving back together and getting their company to match.
Once a giving circle is formed, establishing a Giving Circle Fund at the Sacramento Region Community Foundation makes the process of sustaining its momentum and impact simple. Your members can use a variety of assets to establish and sustain your Giving Circle Fund and qualify for immediate tax deductions. Additional contributions to the Giving Circle Fund and investment gains increase your grantmaking power according to the timeline that’s right for your group.
When you’re ready, direct grants from your Giving Circle Fund to support nonprofits of your members’ collective choosing. Often, the leaders of giving circles will facilitate meetings with members, identify shared philanthropic goals, and determine the process for awarding grants. Not only is your Philanthropy Team at the Sacramento Region Community Foundation your resource for processing gifts into your Giving Circle Fund, but we are also available to offer insight into nonprofits working on causes that matter to your members, recommendations for effective grantmaking — and even meeting space!
Your Giving Circle Fund can be established for as little as $10,000, and — if you wish — endowed with a balance of $50,000. We accept a variety of assets and have in-house expertise to process complex gifts, in collaboration with your members and their financial advisors, ensuring the greatest tax advantages are achieved. You and your giving circle’s members can also include your Giving Circle Fund in your estate planning. See Ways to Give.
Our competitive support fees offset the cost of fund administration and are also reinvested in the Sacramento region through our grantmaking and programs — attending to critical regional issues, improving local lives, and multiplying the impact of your giving. Our support fees vary based on fund type and, in some cases, on the size of the fund. See our fee schedule.
You can invest your Giving Circle Fund assets in the professionally managed investment portfolio that is best suited to your giving circle’s time horizon and giving goals. See Investment Portfolios.
Our competitive support fees offset the cost of fund administration and are also reinvested in the Sacramento region through our grantmaking and programs — attending to critical regional issues, improving local lives, and multiplying the impact of your giving. Our support fees vary based on fund type and, in some cases, on the size of the fund. See our fee schedule.
Yes, our team is available to research nonprofit organizations working in the areas of interest to your giving circle. We can provide a list of organizations and even connect you to help build relationships. If appropriate, we can also support a call for grant proposals from local nonprofits for your giving circle’s consideration. Providing concierge support to our fundholders is one of our most significant value-adds, and it is a key reason why donors choose community foundations like the Sacramento Region Community Foundation above other charitable sponsors.
Your Philanthropy Team
We’re here to help you give with confidence.
