A Funding Circle, as we have interpreted it, is a naturally occurring and impermanent Threshold-based interest group, which convenes when there is both member interest in a particular issue area and an urgent need in the non-profit field to address it.  Whereas our two standing committees are the more permanent, institutional fixtures in Threshold’s philanthropic constellation, Funding Circles are authorized in a yearly charter process. They remain in our foundation orbit for a more limited scope of work or number of years.

Whereas Threshold has an open call for applications from organizations working on issues funded through its Core Committees, Threshold's Funding Circles generally do not accept unsolicited letters of inquiry, proposals, or applications for funding.

Giving circles have long been a philanthropic phenomenon, as friends have always gotten together in places ranging from living rooms to community foundations, to support a cause, an organization or group of organizations dear to their hearts. Some are organized, staffed and programmatic – others are not.

Threshold has sought to take that natural community-based philanthropic impulse and subject it to creative and structural innovation, guided by progressive values of justice, transparency and democracy. We hope that our Funding Circles will:  serve the changing nature or issue-specific philanthropic interests of our members; follow the standards of best practices accepted in progressive philanthropy whenever possible; and more rapidly respond to the dramatically changing events and issues in our world today.

The 2 Current Threshold Funding Circles for 2010-2011 are:

1. Election Integrity
2. Queer Youth Fund

• Naturally occurring grant-making teams, which arise out of the ever-changing interests of Threshold’s member-philanthropists, in specific response to the rapid rate of change occurring in our causes and our world.

• Chartered each year, for one year only, though most Funding Circles are re-authorized if their mission, strategy and team remain vital and of service.

• Flexible philanthropic formats, whose guidelines are designed by the participating Funding Circle members themselves and posted for the public’s benefit and information on Threshold’s website.