Synergos Global Philanthropists Circle

The Global Philanthropists Circle is run by Synergos, an organisation that works on what it calls bridging leadership, meaning the building of trust and collaboration between parties who need to solve a problem together. The Circle grew out of gatherings held in 2001 by Synergos founder Peggy Dulany and David Rockefeller Senior, and it remains a home for philanthropic families rather than individual donors.

Who joins

Membership is held by the family, not by one person. Synergos describes it as a family membership with a next generation component it calls Rising Leaders.

That structure is the point. Philanthropy is one of the few areas where several generations of a family can work together as equals, since nobody inherits expertise in it, and a membership that assumes the whole family will take part is better matched to that than one seat at a conference.

Three criteria govern entry: alignment with the bridging leadership approach, philanthropic or social investment of US$1 million or more, and active engagement with systemic challenges rather than passive giving.

The middle one is a threshold rather than a fee. It sets the scale of commitment expected without telling you what membership itself costs.

How membership works

Membership is selective and Synergos does not publish a fee or a contribution requirement beyond the giving threshold. Terms come on enquiry.

For an organisation whose members are by definition significant donors, the absence of a published figure is less troubling than elsewhere, but it does mean the total cost of participation, including travel to convenings and retreats held around the world, is worth establishing early.

What members get

A global peer network of philanthropic families. Personalised guidance from Synergos staff, which is closer to advisory support than most memberships include. Strategic resources for shaping a giving programme. Collaborative Communities, where members working on the same issue organise around it together. Private convenings and retreats. And a members-only online platform with a mobile application for keeping in contact between gatherings.

The collaborative model is what separates this from a network that simply introduces donors to each other. Several families pooling attention and money on one systemic problem can attempt things none of them would fund alone, and the bridging leadership framework exists to make that practical rather than merely well intentioned.

For a family whose giving has outgrown writing cheques and who want peers rather than advisers, this is one of the few communities built around the family as the unit.