A few years ago, I worked with a group of donors who wanted to pool their resources to create collective impact. For 40 years, this close knit group was part of a book club. Every month, they consistently met at a member’s house to have dinner where they discussed their professional development. The group began with a few members but soon reached over 25 and most of them were wealthy. The group’s leader told me they wanted to set up an endowment pooling their resources together. I took this idea and spoke to my boss. He said we would be losing some big donors because individually they will contribute less as a group.

The group was adamant. They started a giving circle. The book club’s founder established an endowment from their dining table. In 18 months, they fully funded a significant endowment. Giving circles are in vogue and the democratization of philanthropy is happening, slowly but surely.

According to Philanthropy Together, a global initiative promoting collective giving, there are over 4,000 giving circles worldwide. There are 400 plus collaborative funds and $3 billion gets moved through giving circles.

Giving circles create opportunities for small groups of like-minded individuals. They come together to support a cause close to their hearts. As they say, little drops make an ocean and giving circles are becoming popular in developing countries.

Here are a few things we can learn from giving circles:

1. Small groups of people coming together to support a common cause can lead to massive, disruptive changes over time. For example, women who collectively support villagers by funding costs of fertilizers for their crops help everyone in their community.

2. Giving circles strengthen democratic participation and give equal voice and respect to the donor and recipient. This seldom happens with major gift donors who look for return on investment.

3. Most giving circles do not impose conditions on recipients. They rarely ask recipients to report back on what they did with the money. Built on trust, giving circles create meaningful philanthropy. If you want to learn more about giving circles, watch this Ted talk by Sara Lomelin, CEO of Philanthropy Together.