Giving Circles - More Impact to Go Around - NYTimes.com Jessica Craft, left, teaching Eugene Arthur, 9, a basic rock beat during the Rock to the Future after-school music program. INSIDE the red-brick St. Michael's Lutheran Church in North Philadelphia, more than a century old, the walls, lined with stained glass windows, reverberate with the haunting strains of a chorus of middle schoolers singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." It's a soaring rendition of a ubiquitous song. The simple repetition of the word is comforting, mesmerizing and uplifting. And as the voices of the eight vocalists merge while they gather around the piano and their vocal coach, it is easy to forget for a minute that this is not a troupe of professionals. The students are part of Rock to the Future, a nonprofit after-school music program for underprivileged children who receive individual music lessons, learn to read sheet music, compose their own songs, play a range of instruments like drums, guitar and keyboards - and form their own rock bands. "We focus on contemporary music and instruments to get students engaged and motivated," said Jessica Craft, 28, the program's founder and executive director. It received start-up financing of $15,000 in 2010 from Women for Social Innovation, a nonprofit philanthropic "giving circle" with a membership of around 20 women, providing seed money to social innovators seeking to help women, girls and families in the Greater Philadelphia area. Such giving circles are on the rise. Members pool their money to make grants to local nonprofit groups, realizing that one hefty contribution can have an immediate influence in a community. Rock to the Future, for example, has expanded to 35 after-school students from 13. It expects to work with 300 students this year via additional weekends, summer workshops and a pilot mobile unit, with an operating budget of $204,980. "It's a way that women are becoming more strategic in their generosity and making the biggest impact on groups and causes they care about," said Debra J. Mesch, a director of the Women's Philanthropy Institute at the Indiana University School of Philanthropy. The precise number of women's community giving circles can be a little tricky to parse. Typically, prominent women's philanthropy groups receive the recognition, like Women Moving Millions, whose members individually make gifts of at least $1 million for the advancement of women and girls. Another group is Women's Funding Network, whose members invest $65 million annually by connecting more than 160 organizations that fund women's causes across the globe. But for a sense of the grass-roots efforts that go beyond financing primarily women's initiatives, consider the growth of the Women's Collective Giving Grantmakers Network. In 2011, it had 20 members, including the Idaho Women's Charitable Foundation in Boise and the San Diego Women's Foundation. Today, there are 38 collective giving groups, representing 7,000 women in 18 states, including the Gainesville Women's Giving Circle in Florida and the Spirit of St. Louis Women's Fund in Missouri. In 2012, the network's members gave more than $8.9 million to nonprofits throughout the country. Circles choose the level of participation that suits their membership. "But the essence is that it's guilt-free," said Ana L. Oliveira, president of the New York Women's Foundation. You can be as involved as you want to be with no pressure. Some women just want to come to the annual meeting and vote for which groups are awarded the money. Others want to visit sites and see the organization in action, and still others sign on to volunteer directly with the groups that receive the grants. "Women love that," Ms. Oliveira said. In 25 years, her group has invested $33 million in over 280 community-based organizations, affecting the lives of 5.4 million women and children in New York City. Women open their networks, bring their friends, and there is a major ownership in the cause that is funded.