Allo logo

Gift Circles

Gift Circles

TL;DR:

In a Gift Circle, a group of people comes together to discuss needs, contributions, and intentions, then collectively decides how to allocate a shared pool of funds or support. Rather than voting or pitching, participants listen, witness, and gift—with attention to relationship and context.


This mechanism moves funding beyond metrics or governance and into the realm of trust and relational awareness. Gift Circles often:

  • Happen in real-time (in-person or online)
  • Use rounds of sharing and gifting
  • Allocate funds in full transparency
  • Create emotional infrastructure for communities


In Web3 contexts, Gift Circles have been experimented with in:

  • DAO community care budgets
  • Mutual aid allocations
  • Ceremony-based coordination
  • Cultural or regenerative funding rounds


While small in scale, Gift Circles can deeply shift how people understand value, belonging, and legitimacy—surfacing contributions that are invisible in market-based systems.

Best For

  • Tight-knit or values-aligned communities
  • Recognizing care work, stewardship, and emotional labor
  • Cultural and ritual-based public goods
  • Distributing small to medium funding with relational trust

Good At

  1. Building deep trust and presence in funding
  2. Surfacing invisible or relational labor
  3. Creating shared ownership of decisions
  4. Supporting collective emotional and economic resilience

Dependencies / Requirements

  • A shared funding pool
  • A structured process for gathering, sharing, and gifting
  • Trust and emotional safety among participants
  • Optional facilitation or ceremonial container

Not Good At

  • Scaling to large, anonymous groups
  • Rapid decision-making or high-efficiency funding
  • Contexts with competitive or adversarial dynamics
  • Situations needing strict accountability or reporting

Who Should Use It?

  • Communities with strong social fabric and shared values
  • DAOs or ecosystems exploring ritual-based or relational governance
  • Regenerative and care-centered networks
  • Groups wanting to heal extractive funding dynamics

Example Use Cases

  • A DAO hosts a monthly Gift Circle to distribute a small contributor care budget, with members giving to one another in gratitude
  • A local ReFi hub uses Gift Circles to decide how to allocate $5,000 across stewards, artists, and organizers
  • A cultural commons holds seasonal Gift Circles as part of a ritual practice—allocating resources alongside story, song, and presence