From Lisa Kays of Washington Area Women’s Foundation in follow up to my Giving Circle post:
From attending our workshops here, and listening to giving circle members talk, I think this is one of the greatest benefits they feel from giving through a circle–the personal emotional and intellectual interplay that ensues from negotiating, discussing, persuading and eventually deciding through a group about the best giving decisions.
My sense is that it enriches our giving circle members personally, and also leads to the emergence of the actual "best" recipient for the grant rising to the top…sort of the power of the collective unconscience to unearth the right thing.