Sara Lemelin, CEO of Philanthropy Together, was listed on the 50 over 50 list in Forbes this week for her work in spreading the message of collective giving.

I discovered her while researching Grapevine, a community platform designed with giving in mind. Grapevine gathers like-minded people to donate to common causes.

They are a great example of a community platform that allows sub-communities to thrive. Their platform allows individuals to start communities with the purpose of pulling money together on a quarterly basis to donate to local non-profits of the community’s choice.

88% of funding in the US go to the top 5% of non-profits. Isn’t that wild? Grapevine’s mission is to help everyone be philanthropists, and to support their local non-profits in a meaningful way.

Collective giving means that we can have more impact together than alone.

In Sara Lemelin’s Ted Talk, Your Invitation To Disrupt Philanthropy, she says, “All the money in the world will not save us but beloved communities will.”

This is the reason I believe in community-driven business. When you build your business with your community you’ll build something in service of others. And that doesn’t mean you can’t make a lot of money, too… but you prioritize people first.

Here’s the truth– building a business in service of others also results in higher retention, faster growth, and a more sustainable business. Instead of a get rich quick scheme, you’re playing the long game. And community building, my friend, is a long-game.

Grapevine’s Product Model

Before I breakdown Grapevine’s product I want to first define a giving circle.

Sara Lemelin defines a giving circle as a group of people with shared values that come together to make change.

LAUNCH

Grapevine makes it frictionless to start your own grapevine.

In their words – “Grapevine is the infrastructure partner to the giving circle movement. We are the easiest, fastest way to start and manage a giving circle so you can bring people together and give back to the causes you all care about.”

Similar to platforms like Circle or Mighty Networks, Grapevine allows community builders to start their own communities on their platforms. But unlike the other community platforms, the use case here is extremely specific and repeatable.

New Grapevine leaders are encouraged to complete a canvas to help them craft their giving circle. This helps them narrow their sights on the specific and repeatable business model that the Grapevine platform affords them.

ONBOARDING

Member onboarding sets expectations and customizes your experience.

When you join a Grapevine it’s clear what the expectations are. To be a member of the one I joined you must give $100 quarterly and then as a giving circle we vote on where our collective money will be donated.

When I joined my local grapevine, I answered a few questions that automated an introduction post into the community. In addition, I selected that I was interested in attending in-person events and so it prompted me to RSVP for the next upcoming event.

ENGAGEMENT

Member engagement is designed to scale intentionally.

As you can see in the image above, I was asked how I wanted to be involved before I even fully joined. At a minimum, a member of a Grapevine community is engaged every quarter in order to donate and vote.

From there, their engagement can scale to attend local meetups with other members, post discussion topics in the online forum, or even lead the group and create your own events.

Provide different level of engagement opportunities in your community-product to serve different types of members. Not everyone is going to login to your product every day. In fact, most won’t.

GROWTH

Referrals are consistently encouraged

While logged in, in the navigation of the community the “Invite Friends” tab features star emojis to draw your attention to that page. They provide you easy and consistent access to a link that you can share with friends to get them to join your group.

They offer a referral incentive to reduce your giving amount the next scheduled donation in order to save you money. But the even bigger incentive is that by sharing this with a friend you get to look like a good person. And they’re able to capitalize on that emotion.

I mean… I just wrote an entire newsletter issue about how I joined a giving circle. BTW if you’re in Baltimore and want to join me, you can do that here ;). In all seriousness, I joined because only 1.9% of philanthropy is given to women and girls issues. I’d like to support changing that.

Giving Circles

Sara leads Philanthropy Together with a goal to democratize and diversify the power of philanthropy through the power of giving circles.

Watch Sara’s Ted Talk: Your Invitation To Disrupt Philanthropy

These are her four steps to build a giving circle:

Create belonging - When we belong to something that is bigger than ourselves that is what creates lasting commitment to each other and to change. A set shared values.
Hold space for discourse - You have the opportunity to learn together, gain new perspectives, and walk in with something to share and leave with something learned.
Give with trust - The trust that we give to each other transfers to the non-profits the giving circle supports. In Sara’s words, “Community knows what community needs”.
Act in abundance - Philanthropy is about a love of humanity. We can be radically generous in so many ways beyond just money. Sara says to give with your 5 T’s: Time, Talent, Treasure, Testimony and Ties.

Your Reflection Questions:

Reflect on the 4 steps of building a giving circle from Sara Lemelin and think about how these principles can apply in your business.
Grapevine has a very simple and straightforward customer journey on both sides of the platform – as a group leader and as a member. Where can you simplify your customer journey?
As a member of Grapevine you have a sliding scale of engagement opportunities. How can you understand your customers preference and meet them where they are?
Grapevine keeps their “Invite Friends” tab front and center. How can you encourage more consistent referrals?

If you want to learn more about Grapevine you can find a grapevine for you here. If you want to discuss the business of community or philanthropy more subscribe to my newsletter and reply to my emails. I can’t wait to connect with you!

#27 The Community Product Disrupting Philanthropy