A Community of Women Chooses the Causes and Organizations They Want to Support
Circle of hope.
- CategoryPeople
- Written byQuinn Roberts
- Photographed byJeffery Fiterman
For more than 20 years, Avigal Horrow enjoyed a career in the legal field as a consultant and general counsel. Yet she always wanted to give back to her community. So it was in the middle of her legal career that she decided to take a big leap.
In March 2014, Avigal became the community response and relations coordinator for the 1736 Family Crisis Center in Torrance. It is a job that she kept for over five years and one that was the most fulfilling of her career.
After she left that position, she didn’t want to stop contributing to the community. That’s when the idea of a giving circle caught her attention. It’s all about a group of people with shared values who come together to create change. In researching different organizations in the South Bay, she realized that no type of giving circle existed. So in 2022 she founded Forward Giving.
“While working for the 1736 house, I realized that the services to help others are there, but they are just not funded,” says Avigal. “I wanted to change that and get people involved who had the same passion for helping others as I did. When we become educated and exposed to the people doing the work, the groundwork is laid for giving.”
In its first year, 35 women came together and donated $1,500 apiece to the circle. As a collaborative process, it’s important to Avigal that people give their opinions on specific organizations.
In 2023 the cause was mental health. The group decided on finalists by hearing pitches, doing site visits and then voting on who would receive the grant from Forward Giving. The $50,000 grant was split between the Compassion Prison Project and Counseling4Kids.
In 2024 the focus turned to maternal care, which included all aspects of antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum care. After hearing from many different organizations, Forward Giving granted $40,000 to Casa de los Angelitos and $10,000 to Happy Mama Healthy Baby Alliance.
In 2025 the focus will shift to children and youth. Forward Giving is currently researching youth organizations that provide essential resources such as education, health care, mentorship and emotional support, helping bridge gaps created by socio-economic challenges.
“These are very serious issues and incredibly important decisions. The conversations and openness of every person to hear about certain organizations—especially since most of us don’t know each other outside Forward Giving—make it pretty remarkable. We recognize that we are all involved for the same reasons,” says Avigal.
Forward Giving has no specific goal for how many people join the organization, but Avigal hopes it continues to grow based on word of mouth. She knows plenty of people in the South Bay who want to give back to the community.
Avigal has ideas for the future, including a smaller co-ed circle for youth where they would pay $100 and go through the same process. But for now, it is all about Forward Giving and the organizations it has donated to and will in the future.
“I think of us as a nonautomated way of people finding a place to donate funds that truly suits them. People can be incredibly involved or just choose to make a donation. It is truly up to them,” says Avigal. “Forward Giving is just here to make sure that it goes to the right organizations that will do the most with the donation.”
If you are interested in donating to or joining Forward Giving, visit fwdgiving.org.
