The group, 100 Plus Who Care Dunedin, would involve members donating $100 at each of four quarterly meetings.
Three nominated charities would have five minutes to present their work in the local community to the group.
Despite the reputation of shows such as Shark Tank or Dragon’s Den, organiser Nick Berryman hoped the project would help spread the word about Dunedin charities.
"While Shark Tank and those things exist, our intention is not to be so brutal.
"The intention of the group is to be generous to needy charities in the local community in a way that is not particularly bureaucratic and also helps others to share the word of what they’re doing."
"None of us will dispute that every charity that comes will be deserving of some sponsorship.
"A donation is a one-off, but the chance to show what the charity does to people can have a lasting or lifelong impact in terms of donations."
Mr Berryman said some charities struggled to get funding due to the bureaucracy involved with applying.
The only requirements to be nominated were to be a registered charity and for the funds to be spent in Dunedin.
A mix of between 20 and 30 members of the public and business people had shown interest.
Mr Berryman hoped this would grow to over 100 regular attendees in the months to follow, allowing them to dish out $10,000 per meeting.
Donating to a single charity had a much higher impact when it came to smaller donations, Mr Berryman said.
Having run the idea past several charities, he said the consensus was that the opportunity to share was valuable regardless of whether the charity got the money or not.
"Within the charity side of things, publicity is really helpful.
"People often connect with people in-person more than they would just reading something or hearing something.
"The incentive for people to be generous, get involved and learn more about charities is far greater if it’s in person in this setting."
