Make Social Impact a Team Effort & Give Better Together

Bring purpose, connection, and community to the workplace through Giving Circles.

The fastest-growing form of philanthropy, Giving Circles, are also one of the most effective ways to build community and deepen employee engagement.

At Grapevine, we make this collaborative giving model easy and impactful. Whether employees are contributing their own donations or participating in a company-funded version of the model, our program empowers your employees to come together, discover nonprofits, and make collective funding decisions—strengthening relationships and amplifying impact, all while taking the lift off of your small team and seamlessly complementing your existing employee giving and granting platform. If you don’t have a platform, we have you covered there too!

Ready to explore how Giving Circles can support your goals?
Submit a quick form and our team will follow up with more information and next steps.

Why Giving Circles Work

Modern corporate social impact (CSI) programs need more than access to a giving platform—they need shared experience and personal connection. While many companies offer donation tools, participation rates often remain in the single digits. Why? Because access alone doesn’t lead to meaningful engagement.

Giving Circles change that. They transform giving from a solo transaction into a shared experience—bringing employees together around common values, collective decision-making, and a sense of purpose.

• 91% of Giving Circle members say their participation has increased their sense of belonging to a community. (Fidelity Charitable, 2023)
• More than 75% say they are better able to live their values and purpose through their involvement. (Fidelity Charitable, 2023)
• 77% of Giving Circle members report shared identity or values with their circle. (Johnson Center for Philanthropy, 2024)
• 7.5 years is the average length of Giving Circle membership. (Johnson Center for Philanthropy, 2024)

Giving Circles address common barriers to engagement—physical, psychological, and attitudinal—by offering employees a chance to be co-creators of your company's impact through flexibility within a frame.

How It Works

We combine structure and flexibility to make engagement simple for employees—and scalable for you.

• Education & Training: Grapevine facilitates values alignment exercises, cause area selection, nonprofit vetting frameworks, and training of employee champions
• Nominate: Employees submit the nonprofits they care about
• Discuss: Grapevine or employee champions facilitate group conversations around impact and values
• Vote: Teams collectively decide where pooled funds should go
• Give: Donations are distributed automatically—employees see and celebrate the impact

Everything is tracked, organized, and supported through our purpose-built platform, whether you’re launching one Giving Circle or hundreds.

Ways to Partner with Grapevine

Grapevine offers flexible, high-touch support tailored to your goals—supporting everything from first-time pilots to company-wide programs. Grapevine works with you on program strategy, planning, and execution—handling everything from start to finish or filling in where you need us most. Choose a collaborative giving model that fits your goals, culture, and capacity:

Employee Giving Circles

Launch custom programs for ERGs, local teams, or departments. We provide Giving Circle setup and online hosting, employee training, facilitation, and engagement tracking. Employees contribute funds, nominate and discuss nonprofits, then vote and celebrate their collective impact. You can seed or match gifts to amplify their impact.

Employee Granting Circles

Invite your employees, ERGs, or customers to volunteer to collaboratively learn and direct foundation funds together. This model works just like employee Giving Circles, but participants are not asked to contribute funds.

Facilitated Giving Circle Experiences

Looking for an easy, one-time activation? Our hosted sessions are a great team-building experience centered around purpose that are great for executive retreats, community events, or initial introductions of collaborative giving. Grapevine provides expert facilitation and support from start to finish.

Giving Circle Matching Donations

Encourage employees to join 1,100+ Giving Circles already active on Grapevine. From local groups to those focused on particular causes, employees can discover impactful nonprofits and find a deeper sense of community, connection and purpose by learning about and participating in the grassroots Giving Circle movement. Match their contributions directly or through your existing giving platform to deepen their engagement.

Capacity Building for Nonprofit Partners

Grapevine offers nonprofits practical tools and learning opportunities to strengthen fundraising capacity and tap into the growing Giving Circle movement. These programs help organizations expand awareness, build donor communities, grow recurring contributions, and amplify their impact.

• Giving Circle Masterclass for Nonprofits
  Offer your nonprofit partners a guided introduction to the Giving Circle model and movement. This 75 minute session helps nonprofits understand how to tap into this collaborative form of philanthropy to expand awareness, build community, grow recurring contributions, and amplify their impact. Grapevine facilitates the experience from start to finish, providing nonprofits with practical tools and inspiration to explore how Giving Circles can support their mission.

• Launch with Grapevine: For Nonprofits
  Provide your nonprofit partners with a structured, 6–8 week guided program to build their own Giving Circle from the ground up. Through weekly trainings, peer learning, and expert coaching, nonprofits gain the knowledge and tools to grow donor communities, turn one-time givers into recurring supporters, and amplify their long-term impact. Grapevine leads the process step by step, helping nonprofits successfully launch and sustain their Giving Circle.

Let’s chat about which option is right for your team.

Designed for Simplicity, Built for Impact

Grapevine is the only platform built specifically for Giving Circles. We offer:

• Seamless Setup and Administration. Quick and easy onboarding for employees and corporate teams, including dedicated support to help set up and optimize Giving Circles. Customization to fit company goals and structures.
• Tracking & Reporting. Tracking of contributions, participation, and impact. Generate reports for leadership and stakeholders to showcase impact.
• Engagement Tools. Built-in communication and collaboration tools to foster community, such as group and direct communication channels and 1-1 peer matching for purposeful coffee chats. Events and nonprofit nominations and voting features, and automated reminders and updates to keep employees engaged.
• Compliance & Security. Adheres to corporate giving standards and nonprofit verification requirements. Secure donation processing and financial tracking.
• Expert Training & Support. Expert training on Giving Circle facilitation and granting frameworks for employees. Ongoing resources and guidance to maximize engagement.
• Nonprofit Thank You Notes & Impact Updates. A seamless way for nonprofits to send personalized thank-you videos and notes to Giving Circles, as well as impact updates.
• Integration with Employee Giving & Volunteering Platforms. Grapevine’s platform seamlessly complements and integrates with existing corporate volunteer and giving platforms, such as Blackbaud YourCause, Benevity, Bonterra CyberGrants, and Deed.

We help your team turn values into action—without adding administrative burden.

Let’s Build Your Giving Community Together

You bring the passion and purpose—we’ll bring the platform, support, and strategy to make it easy and impactful. From first steps to full-scale programs, Grapevine is here to help you activate meaningful engagement, strengthen your culture, and grow your social impact.

Let’s turn your team’s purpose into powerful, collective action.

Submit a quick form to explore how a Giving Circle program can bring your employees and impact goals closer together.