Templates · Giving circles

Pool money. Decide grants together. Keep the record.

For groups pooling money to give it away — giving circles, collaborative funds, family giving councils, memorial pools. Contributions on the record, grant decisions by group vote, every disbursement on a ledger every member can audit.

Quick answer

EnDAO is the governance and ledger layer for giving circles and collaborative funds — groups that pool contributions and decide together where the money goes. Member contributions, group votes on grants, and every disbursement are recorded on a shared ledger every member can audit. Collective giving has grown substantially, with the Johnson Center tracking more than 4,000 giving circles and $3.1 billion mobilized between 2017 and 2023. EnDAO does not issue charitable receipts or hold 501(c)(3) status; it replaces the back-office spreadsheet and pairs with a fiscal sponsor or community foundation for the tax-deductible leg.

What this looks like

A page from one giving circle’s ledger.

Atlanta Black Women’s Giving Circle · 2026

Q1 2026 · 32 members
Jan 18Annual contributions · 28 members+$14,000.00
Feb 10Grant · Atlanta Youth Project (literacy program)−$5,000.00
Feb 24Grant · Westside Doulas (maternal health)−$3,500.00
Mar 22Grant · Refugee Women’s Network (emergency fund)−$2,500.00

The trust gap in collective giving

What stalls a giving circle, and what keeps it moving.

Giving circles and collaborative funds run on member trust. The fastest way to lose that trust is for the same person to receive every check, decide every grant, or hold the records nobody else can see. EnDAO puts the group on the same page: contributions, votes, and disbursements all on one ledger no individual controls.

What goes wrong

  • One person collects contributions and sends grants alone
  • Grant decisions made in email threads that disappear after the cycle
  • Members can’t see how their contribution was actually allocated
  • Spreadsheet of disbursements is the only record
  • When the circle’s lead steps back, the institutional memory goes with them

What EnDAO does

  • Contributions land on a shared ledger with the contributor named
  • Grant decisions captured as votes with who voted what, when
  • Members see every disbursement against their contribution any time
  • The ledger is the record — survives any individual’s exit
  • Approval thresholds the circle agreed to are enforced automatically

What’s built in

The things every giving circle needs, already there.

Shared ledger

Every contribution, every spend, every approval recorded once and visible to all members.

Decision thresholds

Set what fraction of members must approve before money moves. Change it any time with the same vote.

Membership records

Who is in the group, when they joined, what they contributed. Members can leave; the record remains.

Notifications

When a decision needs you, when a contribution arrives, when a transaction is approved.

Works for

All kinds of giving groups.

  • Giving circles
  • Collaborative and pooled funds
  • Family giving councils
  • Memorial and crisis-response funds
  • Workplace and employee giving funds
  • Named funds at a community foundation
  • Diaspora giving groups
  • HBCU-affiliated giving circles and alumni funds
  • Multi-donor matched campaigns

Common questions

Questions giving circles ask first.

Are contributions to our fund tax-deductible through EnDAO?
Not directly. EnDAO is not a 501(c)(3) sponsor and does not issue donor tax receipts. The honest pattern: pair EnDAO (for governance, decisions, and the ledger) with a fiscal sponsor or a community-foundation-hosted fund (for the tax-deductible receipt and IRS-eligible grant disbursement). Many circles already run this way; EnDAO replaces the back-office spreadsheet, not the legal sponsor.
Can our circle vote on grants without one person deciding?
Yes. Set the approval threshold the circle agreed to — simple majority, supermajority, or two-thirds — and grants only move when the threshold is met. Every vote shows up on the record with who voted what.
Can a member give to specific grantees rather than the full pool?
The shared pool model is what EnDAO best supports — members contribute to the fund, the group decides where it goes. Donor-directed sub-accounts within one group (one contributor’s share earmarked for their personal grant choices) are not natively supported today.
Can we grant to non-501(c)(3) recipients — mutual aid groups, international NGOs, individuals?
EnDAO doesn’t restrict who you can send funds to from a governance standpoint; the limits come from your fiscal sponsor’s policies if you’re using one. Without a sponsor, you can move funds anywhere by group vote, but those grants won’t be tax-deductible to the contributors.
What about end-of-year reporting and audit trails?
Every contribution, vote, and disbursement is logged with timestamps and member identity. Export the full ledger any time for your sponsor, your accountant, or your circle’s annual report.
How does EnDAO compare to Grapevine for giving circles?
Grapevine is a purpose-built giving-circle platform that combines member communication, grant nomination, and a giving flow into one product. EnDAO is the ledger and governance layer: multi-signer approvals, the permanent grant-decision record, contribution tracking, and an audit trail that works alongside a fiscal sponsor or community foundation. If your circle needs a transparent ledger that your sponsor can audit and your members can verify at any time, that is what EnDAO is built for.

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