In October, the Women’s Giving Circle kicked off their 2025 season with a warm and energized group that included friends from the Waterbury Black Giving Circle and the Pride In The Hills giving circle. Featured speaker Barbara Bradbury Pape presented an historical view of philanthropy in our region titled “Pearls of Philanthropy.”
Barbara’s presentation was a reminder that women are often the ones leading the charge to implement just policies. And, if they could not do it alone, they recruited others to join them. This year the Women’s Giving Circle is taking inspiration from these trailblazing women with our theme, “The Greatness Before Us.”
Mark your calendars for the second Giving Circle event on Thursday, February 4, 2026.
“Giving Circles” are groups of generous, caring, community-minded people who come together around shared values and interests to make a bigger impact together. By pooling their resources, time, and ideas, circles support local nonprofits in meaningful ways. Connecticut Community Foundation is proud to strengthen these efforts by holding their funds, providing administrative support, building capacity, cultivating connections, and helping amplify their collective impact.
In turn, throughout the year, Giving Circle members meet in welcoming ways and places to learn about the issues and opportunities affecting people ‘in their own backyards’ and beyond their neighbors and community. These gatherings are all about connection, learning, and collective action.
At the end of each cycle, the group reviews proposals from nonprofit organizations and makes funding decisions as a community—supporting the projects they believe will make the most difference on the issues they care about most.
The non-profit groups that receive support from the giving circles may be smaller or lesser-known organizations that are solving immediate problems and addressing needs at the local grassroots level. Because of their proximity to the people being served, circle members often feel a more personal, participatory connection with these causes.
Members describe the satisfaction, the joy, the fun – and the greater sense of community – gained from making new social relationships and from the knowledge that they are helping right where they live, work, worship, play and call home.
