The Funding Network's donation days bring together charities and the 'new philanthropists'. Sophie Unwin goes along

Graham Prescott, from Yorkshire, gets "one hell of a buzz" from it. For Mike Storey, London architect, the experience has been "one of the best days of my life." He says: "I felt I'd really done something when I came here."

Prescott and Storey are enthusing about the Funding Network, a charity that gets people together to learn about good causes-and give money to them. What is unusual (and very un-British) about the approach is that the 40 or so participants in the room today are not only giving away money but are also doing so openly, shouting out the amounts they want to donate.

Sue Gillie, the network's co-founder, is at the front of the room, scanning for hands. "Margaret, £300", she shouts. "Oliver, £100." The donations are fast-paced and two scribes at the front of the room struggle to get the numbers down, while Gillie maintains an auction-like atmosphere.

"Next one, please; painless, isn't it?" she chivvies. "Any more hands creeping delicately out of their pockets?" In a second round she almost doubles the donations to a street children charity in a South African township: "Imagine the worst slum you've seen in Bombay - with guns".

This is the fourth donation day that the network has organised. Each follows the same pattern: in the morning, different charities are invited to give a short, timed presentation about their work and how they would use donations. At lunch, the participants and charities have a chance to talk to each other. In the afternoon, there is an "informal pledging session", where people are free to give or not.

With more than 60 members signed up in just over a year, the new network looks like an idea that is taking off.

The Funding Network stands out because it is so public: it aims to turn giving money into a social activity. As its brochure says: "We work together, eat together, dance together, yet mostly give alone." And the amounts of money are not necessarily so large: members must undertake to give £1,000 in the course of a year, but the minimum donation to any one project is £100.

The network was the brainchild of Frederic Mulder, a Canadian-born art dealer who came to England on an Oxford scholarship but abandoned his philosophy PhD to turn to his passion for collecting rare prints into a business. Mulder, from a humble farming background, is unembarrassed that he has made a lot of money and wants to give some of it away. "It made me feel like a human being", he says. "I knew how hard I found it to write cheques sitting in my own living room; how much I valued the perspective of others."

Paul Kelland, a family doctor, is another of the network's four founders. Introducing today's event, held in central London, he announces that the past three donation days have raised a total of £200,000 for more than 40 projects. When today's amounts are added up, and the government's gift aid subsidy is factored in, the amount comes to £47,000, split among nine projects.

"It's quite rare for projects to be approached by funders," says Kelland, provoking laughter. The members clearly enjoy this personal involvement. As one points out: "If you give £250 to Oxfam, it's very nice, but here it is much more specific." And there is no doubting the level of interest. Anne Adams is here for the first time, on her 70th birthday, having made the journey from Hereford. "There's far too much secrecy about money," she says. "It's a taboo subject."

Two people from a professional-services company are here to see if the approach might work in City offices. "I thought it sounded bizarre," says one, "but it's not as intimidating as I'd imagined." Also observing is Iona Joy, a researcher for an organization called New Philanthropy Capital, which "helps wealthy donors with their decisions." By attending the event, she meets new donors and, as she puts it, "some of these charities get on to our screening radar".

It seems that Mulder's vision is not an isolated one: consultants and organizations have sprung up in recent years with the specific intention of increasing giving, both by making it more effective and by increasing the amounts given. As well as the government-backed Giving Campaign, there is Philanthropy UK, which exists "to promote new philanthropy, particularly among higher earners, and those with significant resources: And the Beacon awards, launched last week to honour exceptional donors.

The Giving Campaign says personal giving appears to have increased by £500m a year since 2000, with repayments through the individual gift aid scheme having risen from £208m in 1999-2000 to £413m within two years. "The stiff upper lip is disappearing in terms of talking about money in the UK," says Peter Gilhearny, communications manager for the campaign. He welcomes the approach spearheaded by the Funding Network and says he hopes it will encourage people to "shout about their giving more".

According to the Giving Campaign, the richest 20% of the adult population gives just 0.7% of household expenditure to charities, while the poorest 10% gives 3%. As Gilheany puts it, this "presents opportunities for the rich to scale up their giving".

But who are these" new philanthropists" of the Funding Network, and elsewhere, and are they in fact new? Theresa Lloyd, director of Philanthropy UK, makes two claims. "For the first time in the UK, there are a substantial number of people who have quite serious wealth," she says. "And because of communication, one can see problems all over the world."

The perhaps more uncomfortable subtext is that voluntary giving is enabled by, and in many ways a substitute for, higher personal taxation. "We do seem to be turning into a lower tax culture," says Gilhearny. But there is not a direct relationship, he suggests. "Most charities do work that governments won't or can't."

The Funding Network, which has its next funding day on July 5th, is on 020-7586-1442 or at: www.thefundingnetwork.org.uk