HISTORY & PROCESS | VISION | CIRCLE MEMBERS | GRANTEES

The spark for the Fire This Time Fund grew out of a giving plan workshop that our founding member attended at the Making Money Make Change conference (co-sponsored by Resource Generation in October of 2005). She came back to Chicago, donated appreciated stock she inherited to the Crossroads Fund, and mailed a letter in April 2006 to 35 creative movers and shakers inviting them to join her in starting a giving circle that would fund local creative social change projects. Twelve women working in youth media, LBGTQ health, performance, community arts, and education signed on that spring. So the experiment to learn by doing and carve a process that we would shape together began.

FTT is in its fifth year. Each year, we recruit new members (including past grantees) deliberate in our desire for a diverse membership in terms of geography. sexual orientation, gender, and race. We build community together and ask that everyone make a financial commitment that varies between $50 - $500. Some are able to give more, and we fundraise from outside supporters as well. We re-evaluate the process and criteria together each year, solicit love letters in the form of an application, and conduct site visits in pairs. Recommendations are made by the site visit pair to the full group to fund, or not fund the grantee. Trust in the pair's judgment as well as group discussion are central parts of the final decision-making process.