The Rochester Women’s Giving Circle (RWGC) is a community of women who recognize that they have greater strength and potential for positive community impact when they give together.
Our mission is to strengthen our community by enabling women and girls living in poverty to transition to a lifetime of economic self-sufficiency. Grants are made to organizations in Monroe County that help women and girls gain the education, training, skills and jobs necessary to achieve economic independence.
RWGC’s philosophy is ‘money in/money out’. Each year all membership contributions are given out in grants and the process starts again the following year. As an all-volunteer organization with no overhead, almost 100% of member contributions go directly to programs for women and girls, thus maximizing the impact of members’ dollars.
The Giving Circle is also a learning community where members gain new insights into philanthropy as a vehicle for social change and find reward in being directly involved in shaping the future of our community.
We live in a time when it may feel like there are more questions than answers. Our Giving Circle recognizes that hand in hand with our mission, we are on an intentional journey with many others to build a more equitable Rochester Region. We are exploring elements of this journey such as welcoming and seeking a more diverse Circle membership and becoming more intentional about racial equity in the grants we fund.
We are participating in information gathering activities to become better informed and more articulate about ways funders, such as our Circle, can view things using a racial equity lens. A number of topics have emerged for our Giving Circle to address including the need to learn what other organizations are doing, the impact of our efforts that can come from approaching others with humility and genuine curiosity and building deeper relationships with grantees as we learn more and speak up on their behalf.
Learn about our history.
Read about our leadership.
Catch up on our latest news.
See our calendar.
