For nearly a decade, a remarkable thing has been happening across the country. Women gather, sometimes a dozen around a kitchen table, sometimes hundreds in a hotel ballroom, and they give. Not alone, not quietly, but together. They pool their resources, they hear the stories behind the need, and they watch their combined gifts multiply into something no single check could have accomplished on its own.
This is the world of Giving Circles, and it’s been part of the fabric of Women Who Love Young Life (WWLYL) events for years, from intimate in-person gatherings to national events where the giving is larger. Over the past seven or eight years, these circles have generated more than $7 million for Young Life’s mission.
But it’s not just for women now …
Now, that same spirit of collective generosity has a new home online and it’s open to anyone and all giving levels!
The Circle is a monthly giving community brought to you by Young Life and inspired by the work done by the WWLYL team, and it’s built on a simple but powerful idea: what if the joy, transparency, and shared decision-making of a Giving Circle wasn’t limited to a single room or a single night, but was open to anyone, anywhere, giving any amount?
Where The Circle Started:
The story of The Circle starts with simply paying attention. The team noticed how women were increasingly comfortable giving through technology, and they genuinely loved collaborative giving models. Platforms like GoFundMe had shown an entire generation that giving no longer had to be individualistic or private. It could be communal. It could be celebratory. As one team member put it, watching this unfold, “I think we could do this online.”
That single thought sparked the idea of combining what was working beautifully in person, the democratized giving, the shared heart, the sense of having a real voice, with the technology and subscription-based giving models reshaping how people support causes they love. The question became: could these two things be melded together? And could the experience be made even more accessible in the process?
From Dreaming to Building
That’s exactly what the team set out to do. They started dreaming, praying, and taking small steps forward, doing a little more each season. They researched what was working in the broader giving world and then partnered heavily with Young Life’s MarTech (Marketing/Technology) team to build out a real test run.
As anyone who has built new technology knows, that first pilot surfaced plenty of bugs and kinks. But every one of them taught the team something, and what emerged from those pilots was a genuinely engaging experience for real givers testing it out.
You build something real, put it in front of real people, and refine it with the confidence that comes from actual use. That’s exactly the posture the team took, and it’s how The Circle came to life.
How The Circle Works
The Circle is refreshingly simple, and that simplicity is the point. It’s a crowdsourced giving model, designed for any age and any amount, where members watch their individual gift multiply fast alongside everyone else’s. It’s open to anyone: new donors just discovering Young Life and lapsed donors rediscovering it are equally welcome. Members join with a monthly gift, and here’s the part that sets it apart from almost every other giving platform: every member gets one equal vote, no matter the size of their gift.
Funding Opportunity Pitches to Vote On
Four times a year, members receive three real Young Life funding opportunities by text and email, proposals that, notably, the field itself can submit. Members read each story, then cast their vote from a phone or desktop, no app or login required. One week later, voting closes, and the whole Circle funds the winning proposal together.
Celebrate Together
Then comes the best part: celebration! Members receive a video and story showing exactly what their gift accomplished, so giving never disappears into a black box. As one founding member put it, “Every quarter I see exactly what we funded. Photos, numbers, real kids. No black box.” Another shared, “My monthly gift didn’t feel like much on its own. Seeing our circle send 200 kids to camp, that changed how I think about giving.”
Right now, The Circle is inviting its very first 100 Founding Members to help launch the community. Founding Members get to choose the first proposals ever funded through the platform and pioneer a brand-new way to support kids worldwide, a chance to be present at the ground floor of something that could shape Young Life giving for years to come.
Why It Matters
Young people ages 11 to 24 made up nearly a quarter of the global population in 2024, 1.85 billion kids navigating anxiety, depression, loneliness, and isolation at rates previous generations never faced.
Young Life’s answer has always been genuine, relational friendship: locally trained volunteer leaders who show up, again and again, for kids who need to know they’re seen.
Today that mission spans 108 countries and all 50 states, carried forward by nearly 78,000 staff and volunteers who together know more than 4.4 million kids by name.
The Circle exists to fuel that work in a way that feels as personal and communal as the ministry itself. It leans on the belief that generosity is better shared, that a voice matters as much as a gift, that celebrating impact together multiplies the joy of giving, and makes it available to anyone with an internet connection and a heart for kids.
Whether you’ve given to Young Life for decades or you’re just now hearing the name for the first time, The Circle offers something rare: a seat at the table, an equal vote, and a front-row view of exactly what your generosity makes possible.
Ready to be one of the first 100? Visit thecircle.younglife.org to become a Founding Member today.
