The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s Women’s Giving Circle wrapped up its 10th cohort by announcing $29,200 of grants to nine programs serving Portland’s Jewish community.

While the primary function of the Giving Circle – gathering philanthropically-minded Jewish women to collectively commit and direct funds to areas of need and import – remains the same, some of the group’s process changed this year.

“We had each applicant come into our meeting and give an in-person presentation explaining and answering questions,” Rosemary Schwimmer, the circle’s leader, said. “It really reinvigorated the process quite a bit.”

Previously, the circle had worked solely with written materials and broken up into pairs to evaluate applications. This time, the entire group evaluated each application.

“We decided at the end of last year was that it has been great, but we’ve been doing it this way a very long time, so let’s just flip it on its head and invite everybody in,” explained Wendy Kahn, a member of the circle and the recently retired Federation Chief Development Officer who helped launch the program a decade ago.

Previously, the pairs system had allowed participants to get to know fellow members in a one-on-one setting. In the updated process, Kahn said, “everybody [could] get to know everybody at the same time. And we all [heard] the same information at the same time.”

“I think we felt like we were getting a little stagnant, and we were trying to figure out a way to sort of re-engage with our members and make the process more meaningful for everyone,” Schwimmer added.

The mid-year report process was valuable for both the committee and the grantees, Schwimmer explained.

“If we get a mid-year report and we can sense that the grantee is in trouble in terms of spending the money, direction to go or what’s happening, that’s when we can step in and be helpful, she said.

This year, the Women’s Giving Circle awarded $5,000 to Oregon Hillel to support its Rosh Chodesh programming, $4,500 to the Jewish Association for Death Education, $3,600 to the Eastside Jewish Commons for its Hot Flashes and Holy Moments programs around menopause, $3,600 to Dignity Grows, $3,400 to Congregation Kol Ami for its MLK Day of Service event, $3,000 to the Mittleman Jewish Community Center for a Pink Shabbat program, $2,700 to TischPDX, $2,400 to Chabad of Oregon to support Morah Rochel’s Shabbat Hugs and $1,000 to the Sherie Hildreth Ovarian Cancer Foundation for its Jewish Women’s Running Team pilot program.

Kahn, in addition to leading the formation of the Women’s Giving Circle, has participated in all 10 of them during her time with the Federation, though she’ll be stepping back from that participation in her retirement. She described WGS as one of the most enjoyable parts of her professional legacy.

“Federations have grown and changed in terms of how they embraced giving circles from when we started our giving circle to where they are now, because collective giving was seen as being in tension with the annual campaign. Working together with Marc [Blattner, Federation President and CEO] and working together with the committee at the very outset, we created a structure that allowed for participation, and actually required participation, in the annual campaign,” Kahn said. “It has been a beautiful thing. We’ve gotten board members, people participating in the OJCF, people moving on into other leadership roles, with the Giving Circle being one of their starting points of engagement in the community.”