Steps to Start Your Circle

Set a fundraising goal and create a name for your Circle. If your goal is at the $2500 level or above, the name of your Circle may be used to name a scholarship for one of our recipients.
Identify friends, neighbors, members of your church, co-workers, fellow alumni, family members, professional colleagues, or others who you would like to invite to join your Circle. You can organize them in our Potential Members Spreadsheet. Once you have all your names and addresses together, Click to download a letter that you can use to send to the people on your list.
Set up a meeting of all the individuals who are interested in being part of your Circle. Develop ideas about how the Circle will reach its contribution goal. We have a printable donation request letter and an email letter that you can send to friends, associates and family members to solicit donations for your Circle.
Submit the names of all Circle participants to JRF so that they can be recorded. You can use the Potential Members Spreadsheet that you developed to organize your mailing list once you remove all those individuals who chose not to participate. Just e-mail that file to JRF. Be sure that JRF has the name and address of each donor, enabling us to send each an acknowledgement that can be used for tax purposes.
Collect the contributions and forward them by May 1 to JRF at: P.O. Box 6653, Athens GA 30604-6653