Grapevine, the collaborative giving platform that connects people to grow the common good through Giving Circles, recently announced that it has raised $1.67 million in equity financing with an additional $180,000 in grants.

Grapevine is the only platform dedicated to Giving Circles, where everyday people come together to connect, pool their donations, and collectively decide which nonprofits to support on a recurring basis.

Emily Rasmussen, founder and CEO of Grapevine, said in a press release:

At Grapevine, our goal is simple: connect the people, and grow the good.

This means more people getting involved to make a difference and more money going to smaller, more local, and more diverse causes.

Successful Investment Round

The round was led by PJC with new participating investors Ulu Ventures, WTI, Social Good Fund, and Focus Impact Partners, joining existing investors in this round such as Notation, Ground Squirrel Ventures, and Overton Venture Capital.

For its part, Alex Wilson & Pat Duffy, (Co-Founders at The Giving Block) and Geng Wang, (CEO and Cofounder, Civic Champs) joined existing pre-seed angel investors and operators such as David Heath (Founder of Bombas); Lynn Taliento (Senior Advisor and Founder of Social Impact Practice, McKinsey & Company); Alex Chung, (founder and CEO of GIPHY); Claire Diaz-Ortiz (Founder of Twitter Social Impact Team); Jay B. Love (Co-Founder and Former CEO of Bloomerang and Active Angel Investor); Steve Schlafman, (Founder of Schlaf & Co.); Paul Sawaya (Co-Founder of Elsewhere and Human Interest); and Gaingels.

Giving Circles

Through its platform, Grapevine helps like-minded people connect through the common goal of giving back, making it easy for them to find and join one of the hundreds of Giving Circles across the country that support specific communities or broader cause areas.

“Working with communities early on to help them unlock economic opportunity became the catalyst to building technology that would democratize access to finance from people around the world,” pointed out Rasmussen.

Grapevine also helps anyone who wants to start their own Giving Circle by making it easy to set up their group page, invite members, and start collecting donations on Grapevine in minutes.

Whether it's a small group of friends, a tight-knit neighborhood block, or a team of professionals coming together for a cause, Grapevine is the philanthropic home for group giving.

We’re excited to announce our latest round of funding ($1.85M) from @PJC, @uluventures, @WTIsocial, Social Good Fund, and Focus Impact Partners to expand the Grapevine team and platform, bringing like-minded people together to connect through the common goal of giving!

— Grapevine (@GrapevineGiving) August 8, 2023

Democratizing Philanthropy

“This ultimately led to Grapevine, a more purposeful, community-based giving experience, that would go beyond the transactional crowdfunding campaign. We’re thrilled about our seed funding because every dollar invested in Grapevine, returns nearly 10 times in donations to nonprofits,” added Rasmussen.

Grapevine currently supports more than 800 Giving Circles in every state across the country, with more than 55,000 total members, resulting in $25 million in giving to date, and it is on track to move $100 million in Giving Circle donations on its platform by 2025.

The organization is also building its Community Partners for Good program that engages distribution and donation partners to increase the impact of this widespread social movement forever.

Grapevine has partnered with the likes of AARP on a Create The Good Giving Circle Guide, Idealist, Philanthropy Together, Giving Compass, Charity Navigator, and Global Impact to democratize and disrupt the traditional philanthropy donation model and bring in more diverse perspectives so that more dollars are provided to underrepresented and diverse communities.

It recently launched Grapevine For Companies, a highly engaging, high-impact model designed to cultivate company culture in the workplace by growing the common good together.

The goal is to build community and connections, while doing good with your business that can impact the community. Some current participants include GIPHY and Evertrue.

“At PJC, we believe in empowering founders to create a better future, and Grapevine fits that bill. Real change requires risk and unconventional thinking. What Grapevine is doing is reshaping philanthropy through innovative technology and how we go about doing good with and for others,” noted Matt Hayes, general partner at PJC.