DVWS Giving Circle 2018 - Recap, Proposal Summary & Thanks

This year's Giving Circle fund sharing event took place last weekend, Saturday February 3rd, and was a very successful evening of building friendships and strengthening our community from the inside out. Our only wish is that we'd had more members join together with us!

Twenty-six parents, faculty, staff and board members gathered together to consider thirteen proposals, which had been submitted by various Giving Circle members in the week leading up to the event. The choices weren't easy—every single proposal would have been beneficial for our school and our students. We began with slightly over $13,000.00 in the fund. By the end of the evening we had fully or partially funded eleven of the proposed projects. You can see a summary of the projects below.

A true community spirit comes to life each year at the Giving Circle event. This was our third year, and was certainly no exception. After the projects were presented and explained by their champions it was time for us to vote. Generosity came to life immediately and tangibly. Before any of us could make our way to the proposal boards to place our votes, five projects had been fully funded via private sponsorship with spontaneous additional donations. Over the course of the evening votes were placed and even more dollars were pledged. In the end the Giving Circle was able to put $16,336.21 worth of new projects in motion. It's truly humbling and inspiring to witness that kind of shared support of a common purpose.

That's what the Giving Circle is! It's an opportunity, open to all, to play an integral part our school's direction and focus. It's an invitation to lead, to have a say, and to share any vision you might have for your child's school experience. This year twenty-six of us made the decisions that will be carried out in the coming year. What do you think of the projects that were funded? Where will you be this time next year?

If you have any questions at all about the Giving Circle, please ask. We've come to realize that the purpose and process aren't fully clear to many of you, and we'd welcome an opportunity to change that.

There are so many thanks to go around! Thank you to Amin Setoodeh for so generously giving of his time by serving as our able emcee and event leader for the evening. Thank you to each and every Giving Circle member who attended the event or sent votes by proxy—you are our mainspring. Thank you to those who made a donation and trusted the group to put your money to work in the best way possible for the community—we couldn't do it without you. Thank you to those who stepped up to fill a specific need with additional donations during the Giving Circle event—we appreciate your willingness to go above and beyond.  Thank you to those who submitted proposals for consideration—we are grateful for your leadership. Thank you to everyone who invited friends and family to share in our vision—a new record was set this year with an amazing 47% of donors coming from outside the core group of parents/faculty/staff/board of the school. Thank you to every one of the mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends of our students who see the worth and value of what we do for the children you love, and who so generously support our efforts. Our gratitude overflows!