'Giving Circles,' Giving Hope

Mac Fedge has been an athlete, activist, and scholar. It's no surprise he's an inspiration, though it's not for what you might think.

Three years ago, Mac Fedge was in a devastating car accident in his hometown of Reston, Va..

"It was a catastrophic crash into Mac," says his mother, Kathy Fedge. "It was a miracle that Mac made it out of the car. They warned us that he was really -- there was a strong possibility that he wouldn't survive."

But, adds Kathy, "Miraculously, he came out of the coma."

As Mac lay in the hospital, slowly winning the fight for his life, another miracle, of sorts, was occurring among a group of women the family hardly knew.

"They got together and started a flea market to raise money for me and my family to help defray insurance costs that we had to pay," Mac recalls. "It helped a whole lot," to the tune of $2,600 in one morning.

For the Fedge family, Smith observes, it was more than just money.

"When you're down -- and we were pretty down – it's good to know there are people out there who want to help, and do as much as they can for you," said Mac's father, Don, getting misty-eyed.

For the women, it was only the beginning.

"We were just so successful, and we had such a good time doing it, and it made us all feel so good, that was it. We just felt so good, doing something," says Joan Kasprowicz.

"We saw how what we did made a difference. In that one family, who had a lot of needs, we really did make a difference," added Linda Strup.

So, they started what's called a "giving circle," a social group where members pool their money and talents, and donate them to worthy causes.

"By being in a group, in a giving circle," Joan explains, "the individual has more power and more effect than they would on their own."

Smith visited a school where the northern Virginia circle was making hats for sick children, with funds donated by members and time donated by the community. The organization the circle was helping was Glories Happy Hats.

While they may look like lighthearted sewing circles, giving circles are raising serious cash for charity, Smith points out.

"We're talking about over 200 known giving circles that have brought together about 6,000 donors who have collected about $44 million," says Buffy Beaudoin-Schwartz of the Association of Baltimore-Area Grantmakers, in Columbia, Md. "We believe that's just the tip of the iceberg, and we think that that's probably only about 10 percent of giving circles across the country."

Beaudoin-Schwartz is also a member of the Women's Giving Circle of Howard County, Maryland.

Giving circles are popping up all over the United States. They're organized, mostly, by women, who combine light gossip with hard work, Smith notes.

"You can only change your little corner of the world," says Diana Katz, another giving circle founder. "And if all of us do that, the whole world changes."

Mac describes the giving circle participants as "incredibly nice people who are willing do whatever it takes to help others." And in the process, they become role models.

"It's something that's good to be in the future, something I'd like to be in the future," he says, grinning.

To go to the best resource for information on starting or joining a giving circle, click here.