RSF Social Finance Announces Shared Gifting North Carolina

Aug 5, 2015 7:15 AM ET

August 5, 2015 /3BL Media/ -  RSF Social Finance is thrilled to announce that we are hosting a Shared Gifting circle in the triangle area of North Carolina. This is RSF’s fifth Shared Gifting circle, but the first in North Carolina. The reason for this announcement is to raise $50,000 in matching funds for Shared Gifting NC.

Shared Gifting is a model of grantmaking that puts decisions in the hands of the grantees. In September, with $120,000 available for distribution, we will bring leaders from twelve triangle area non-profits together for a day-long meeting. Each will come with a grant proposal. They will share their personal stories, their non-profit work, and their proposals with each other, culminating in a collective decision as to how the money will be distributed between the twelve grant proposals. RSF has found that the Shared Gifting process creates trust, transparency, builds community, and mutual accountability through community-based decision-making around grants.

The twelve non-profit participants of Shared Gifting NC are listed below. Each is working to promote socially and ecologically sustainable food systems which we believe are an important part of resilient local economies.

This group will meet in September 2015 to share their stories, work, and proposals, and to distribute funding.

In the past RSF has raised the funding internally to support these circles. For the first time in our Shared Gifting work, we are inviting the local community to match our $50,000 contribution. Our goal is to share our innovative Shared Gifting practice and more generally to bring transparency, community, and non-profit engagement to grantmaking.

Our intention is to raise $50,000 in matching funds from local community members. We have our first $5,000 commitment from the Fenwick Foundation in Chapel Hill. We invite you to contribute and to share this opportunity with your colleagues in the area.

If you are interested or have questions please contact Kelley Buhles, Director of Philanthropic Services at RSF Social Finance at Kelley.buhles@rsfsocialfinance.org or 415-561-6152, or Frank Phoenix, President of the Fenwick Foundation at frankjphoenix@gmail.com or 919-612-4613.