There are women throughout North America interested in starting their own giving circles. To help all of you jump-start the process, here a few tips and forms you can use to start a local group like ours. It’s a really fun way to get to know some wonderful people in your area. If you still have questions, feel free to contact a 100 Plus Women Who Care chapter nearest you.

First, it’s SO great to have you join the 100 Plus Women Who Care movement! As more and more women find out about this, more and more are springing up. Just search for “100 Plus Women Who Care” on the web and you will see hundreds of stories about the generosity of these giving circles all around North America!

There are just a few steps to create your 100 Plus Women Who Care giving circle:

1. Contact several friends/colleagues and ask them if they can help start a group. We recommend a core group of four that are committed to making this work.

2. Schedule one to two meetings to get yourselves organized, create an initial target list of friends and colleagues to email and reach out to.

3. Create forms for new member sign up and nominating a charity, as well as ballot slips for voting. If you have someone with graphic design talent, create a logo and design all of the forms and materials used at all the meetings. Contact Kirsti Scott (San Diego chapter) if you’d like copies of the logo or the forms she created in Word, or download a copy of forms from a sister website that you can customize for your group (ZIP 799KB).

4. Create a Facebook page and/or website to help spread the word. Send us a link to your page and site when they’re done so we can add you to our list of 100 Plus Women Who Care groups and invite you to the 100+ Women Who Care leader LinkedIn group.

5. Divide up the duties before your first meeting, and invite volunteers to help at your meetings, so they can step in if you ever need to miss a meeting:

• Lead/Presenter: Run the meetings, opening with a little history about the giving circle and explaining the rules. Keep the meeting running on time and make sure to allow time for people to tell each other about other local causes or upcoming events, aside from the three that are presented for consideration.
• Publicity and promotion: Write a press release before each meeting and send notices to the local newspapers about the meeting dates and times.  Follow up after the meeting to make sure you get a mention in the paper about who received the donation. Send emails to your list a month before and a week before the meeting. Post an event on your Facebook page so women can RSVP and share with their friends.
• Membership: Keep a list of all those who join by completing the membership form. Run the sign-in table at meetings and hand out ballots to those attending. Add new members to the email list.
• Community relations: Check up on all nominations to ensure that they are bona fide local charities.  Update the website with the names. Maintain all the information we need on the charity.
• Treasurer: Collect and tally the votes and collect and tally the checks, ensuring that we deliver all the money to the selected charity each meeting.
• Secretary: Keep track of who attends, who spoke, and post information about meetings to the Facebook page and the web site so we have a record of the group’s activities.

6.  Join the 100 Plus Women Who Care Chapter Leaders group on LinkedIn. It’s a great place to share discussions about best practices and stay connected with other groups.

GOOD LUCK with starting your group!