Bega Valley Women’s Giving Circle holds monthly coffee catchups. Photo: Supplied.
An eclectic group of Bega Valley women are coming together to give their time, skills, experience, connections and money to projects that support the shire’s women and young people.
Since officially coming together in August 2025, the Bega Valley Women’s Giving Circle (BVWGC) has 37 member donors. They hope to have 50 member donors by the end of June.
BVWGC is an initiative of Mumbulla Community Foundation (MCF), a not-for-profit that is largely run by volunteers. It has been operating in the Bega Valley for 21 years.
Kaley Morrissey is a director of MCF and a founding member of BVWGC. She said MCF’s chair became aware of women’s giving circles through MCF’s membership of Community Foundations Australia.
“He started talking about it two years ago and how powerful collective giving can be,” she said.
MCF is one of around 135 community foundations in Australia.
“Our charter is focused on supporting community need through grants and donations,” Ms Morrissey said. “In most recent years, we were entrusted with distributing bushfire recovery funding from the Australian and NSW governments to local organisations.”
She said there were several women’s giving circles across the country, including large ones in Sydney and Canberra.
An event they held for International Women’s Day. Photo: Supplied.
She referenced recent research by She Gives that showed women are naturally prone to want to support causes in their community and are highly influential in philanthropic giving.
More than 60 per cent of women who live with a partner said they always or usually make household giving decisions and 64 per cent of women said they want to give more. According to the research, women give because they care about the cause, want to make a difference, trust the organisation or want to give back.
Ms Morrissey said the funds trickling down from the Federal and State governments were less in rural and regional areas than in urban locations. That is the gap BVWGC is trying to fill.
“There needs to be more funding available for the issues in rural and regional communities,” she said. “Living on rural properties away from each other and across a large area, women love to meet for social benefits and networking.”
BVWGC also enables newcomers to connect while simultaneously doing some good for the community.
After substantial co-design, MCF invited “community champions”, women who are connected in their locality, on the ground and understand the situation and the needs, to a consultation workshop in Tathra in May 2025.
“That was the kick-off point because there was so much enthusiasm for it,” Ms Morrissey said. “There was so much positive feedback and data from that workshop that the MCF board said there is a need and the women themselves are very supportive.”
Bega Valley Women’s Giving Circle held a gathering at Christmas. Photo: Honey Atkinson.
MCF, which has deductible gift recipient (DGR) status, then put together a plan on how to attract donors to BVWGC. Women are asked to donate $20 a week, or $85 a month or $1000 a year.
“We think that $20 a week is achievable for most women. Ultimately it is about having as much impact as possible,” Ms Morrissey said. “Our first signed up in August and we flew from there.”
The first 13 founding donors held a workshop to drill down into how they saw the circle developing.
MCF’s DGR status meant the governance and structure existed, leaving BVWGC to concentrate on raising funds and deciding where the money goes.
All the funds raised will be pooled together, with 45 per cent being distributed to areas of immediate need and 45 per cent invested in a perpetual fund, with a portion being granted each year. The remaining 10 per cent is used for administration to ensure BVWGC is sustainable.
BVWGC seeks to be inclusive and diverse. The group is currently exploring membership pathways to ensure this happens. Members also benefit from networking, skill sharing and social connection, with opportunities to learn from women with diverse backgrounds and experience. “It benefits both the community and the women involved,” Ms Morrissey said.
BVWGC has developed the guidelines for its SheCares grant round, with applications opening in mid-July.
It holds monthly coffee catchups for anyone who is curious about the circle and is planning an all community grants celebration event in September. Visit MCF’s website to learn more.
