Want to be a philanthropist like Bill Gates for £10 per month?

By Neil Irwin - last updated on 7 September 2011
You could get the same buzz from giving a few hundred pounds together as Bill and his friends giving billions.

Bill Gates has donated an estimated $28billion to charity through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has also convinced some of his billionnaire friends to do the same. Warren Buffet has given $38billion to Bill's Foundation.

You could get the same thrill from making a difference to the world by asking your friends to donate to local, national or global causes in a collective way - taking your few pounds and making it into hundreds / possibly thousands over the course of the year. You don't have to be a billionnaire or a friend of Bill Gates to make this happen. 

You could set up a Facebook Group with the purpose of giving in response to local or global events in the news. You could invite your friends, family and strangers to join you in choosing to support a cause or causes.

Suppose you hear on the news of a teenager taking their own life and you want to support a charity working on suicide prevention. Imagine if you could get all of your like-minded friends to give £10 at the same time to the same charity.

Or maybe the famine in East Africa is on your mind. You could give £10 or you could get all of your Giving Circle friends to agree to give £10 and make a much larger donation.

Setting up a Giving Circle online in pretty straightforward. The following is just a guideline but you could improvise your own steps to encouraging people to give collectively. You and a couple of friends will really need to champion this idea to make it work.

  • Step One: Ask your friends if they want to start an online giving circle. Discuss in general the causes you want to support and the level and frequency of donations you would like to give. Try not to be boring. Try to inspire them about the difference you can make. How you do this is up to you. 
  • Step Two: Set-up a Facebook group for the giving circle - invite friends, family and strangers. Ask friends, family and strangers to invite other friends family and strangers.
  • Step Three: Members of the circle propose, discuss and argue about the charities to support. You may want to use the Facebook polls feature to decide. You might ask members to make pledges to the charity first - for example - I will give £20 if 10+ other members give also. Its again up to you and your friends
  • Step Four: Guide your facebook giving circle friends to the online donation link for your chosen charity - make your donations.

Giving Circles can also operate in person and not just online. You may wish to expand your circle to social events and make an occasion of your arguments and discussions about who to support.

You may not have £28billion to give away but put enough pennies together and you can change some small corner of the world.