Bring Women Into the Circle of Giving

"If you're doing good stewardship with that planned gift, women may feel more comfortable than giving a major gift," she says.

Getting a handle on how to solicit women for donations is important, as the female demographic is an untapped resource ready come into its own. As Shaw-Handy points out, "Women have choices in their careers like they've never had before. Women are making far more money than they ever did before. They stand to inherit an enormous amount of money [that] … will be handed down in the next couple of generations. They outlive their husbands by seven years … and they're beginning to think of themselves as philanthropists."