How It Works

Members donate $100 (or $50 if part of a team of two) four times a year.

Members may nominate one local nonprofit each quarter to be the top recipient of that quarter’s pooled donations.

The steering committee vets all nominees for eligibility before adding them to the current list of nominees.

After nominations close for the quarter, we randomly select three of them to present at our upcoming meeting, after which members in attendance vote for the one to be our “primary recipient.”

We allocate $10,000 of our combined funds to that recipient and split the remainder equally between the other two.

The top recipient also stands to receive a 50% match ($5,000) from the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation. As a giving circle specifically invited into this program, we apply for this grant each quarter on the nonprofit’s behalf. Assuming the organization aligns with the foundation’s mission to “strengthen and support effective initiatives in education, health care, and human services that benefit all,” it receives the $5,000.