FALL 2007

Female philanthropists are becoming heavy hitters in the charitable sector as their command of wealth grows.

In a report by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 2005, 3.4 million, or 46.3 percent, of the nation’s top wealth holders were women in 2001. This represents a 36 percent increase from the prior reporting in 1998. The IRS defines top wealth holders as individuals with gross assets in excess of $675,000.

And, because women are likely to outlive their husbands and inherit their wealth, in addition to gaining the inheritance from their parents, women are expected to eventually hold much of the $41 trillion expected to pass from generation to generation over the next 50 years, says Andrea Pactor, who is director of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute (WPI) at The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University in Indianapolis.

According to the WPI, women have unique methods of giving. The Six C’s: Women's Motivations for Giving, which is published by WPI, says female philanthropists are apt to collaborate in supporting a cause, they wish to form partnerships with the people who are connected to the cause and they want to see creative solutions to problems. They are opposed to simply preserving the status quo, the report adds.

Is it surprising that women’s involvement in philanthropy is different than men’s? No, says Cynthia Schmae, chief operations officer of the Women’s Funding Network. Since women have different ways of communicating with their peers and getting involved in their communities, it is only natural that their methods of philanthropy would be different from the traditional means.

Even the ways that women and men hear about and learn to trust in a cause is different, Schmae explains. For example, if a woman sees a problem happening with her local school, she will likely get on the phone with her network and mobilize as a group. Women want to be asked directly, by someone they trust, to be a partner in a cause.

“The women's funds that are members of the Women's Funding Network model this approach, with a style of philanthropy that is horizontal and democratic, and where donors and community members have equal seats at the decision-making table,” Schmae explains.

Kathleen McCarthy, Ph.D., director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, agrees that women are a force in the world of philanthropy, with more women creating foundations than ever before and many more women in the United States giving gifts of $50 million or more.

“I think that there has been a sea change in women’s giving, and it’s only going to be more pronounced with time,” McCarthy emphasizes. “The old idea was that women required a lot of cultivation, sometimes years. Now they are in a position to make a decision much more quickly than their mothers did.”

Reprinted from Kaleidoscope, a publication of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Copyright 2007.

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