POISE is comprised of many individual endowment funds that have been created by individuals and organizations over time.

These donors have started endowment funds by investing personally or fundraising to create an endowment fund with a charitable purpose as its end result.

Over the last couple of years, the Foundation has also discovered the benefits of helping to create Giving Circles. A Giving Circle is formed when a group of individuals come together to pool their resources in a manner that allows them to strategically give to causes, events, or charities that the Giving Circle determines to be of importance to them and the community. Giving Circles take all types of shapes, forms, and have been created for various charitable purposes.

In 2006, POISE Foundation and Program to Aid Citizen Enterprises collaborated as a catalyst to form a new Pittsburgh Giving Circle called the Sankofa Fund of Southwest PA.

To learn more about giving circles, visit the Community Investment Network