Bring Women Into the Circle of Giving
Bring Women Into the Circle of Giving
Nov. 22, 2005
By Abny Santicola, FundRaising Success
When it comes to donating to charity, women and men are birds of a different feather, says Cheryl Altin-Kemer, founding board member and past chair of the Women's Philanthropy Institute at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.
"Women tend to collaborate as opposed to compete. So when it comes to making proposals or working with people, it works a little better to have a collaborative approach rather than a competitive approach," Altin-Kemer says.
For that reason, she encourages organizations that want to solicit major gifts from women to start giving circles, where a group of women are all encouraged to give similar amounts. The money is then pooled and given to a common cause.
Sondra Shaw-Handy, programmer for the Women's Philanthropy Institute and co-author of the book "Reinventing Fundraising: Realizing the Potential of Women's Philanthropy," says that collaboration is one of the six Cs that motivate women to give. The others: change; create; connect; commit; collaborate; and celebrate.
"That's one of the major reasons for the explosion of women's giving circles," Shaw-Handy says. " … This is the way to grow women as philanthropists because [for] many of these women, even though they might have been able to afford it, it's a stretch gift for them, $1,000 a year. But they see the impact that that can make when they join that gift with others."
While she maintains that women are as generous philanthropically as men, Altin-Kemer also notes that women tend to give small amounts to a variety of organizations as opposed to men, who might give larger amounts to fewer organizations. This makes women strong prospects for planned giving, and so Altin-Kemer suggests treating planned gifts and major gifts in much the same way when it comes to women.
"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."
Both Altin-Kemer and Shaw-Handy can be reached via the Web site www.women-philanthropy.org.
