Challenge or Collaborate

Helen and Swanee Hunt
Women Moving Millions

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates
Billion Dollar Challenge

I've been thinking a great deal about the Gates/Buffet Billionaire Challenge to raise $650 billion from billionaires.  Although I'm surely in favor of more money going to nonprofits and recognize the potential, something bothers me.  It's the same type fundraising as is done in most capital campaigns.  It's all about using competition to get people to give.

This definitely was not the method used by Women Moving Millions.  Now granted, we're talking millions here, not billions.  But you have to start somewhere and look at how successful the women were: by not using competition.  They used connection and collaboration and yes, the rest of the 6 C's of women's giving as well: change, create, commit and now they are celebrating.  The money was raised because of the need, not just because of who asked them to give.  There was no challenge involved unless it was a collaborative one of getting the goal completed (which was done and more).

Again, I don't want to negate the methods being used in the billion dollar campaign as let's face it, most billionaires are men and this is the way men have traditionally raised money--through challenging one another--through competition.

My daughter's significant other brought this home to me recently when he decided that if women could raise $8,000 at a potluck (see the July 26 post), his male friends would do the same.  He said their motive would be that they wouldn't want to have the other men think they couldn't or wouldn't participate.  This is so very different from the way we raised our money.  It was because of the cause: to help women in dire need in the community.

In the last chapter of our new book, "Women and Philanthropy: Boldly Shaping a Better World," we talk about what the world would be like if the ways women give became the ways all people give.  That remains to be seen and I hope I'm around to see the results...when women are the billionaires and making the giving decisions.  Perhaps there won't be a need for challenges because women will already be giving at least 50% of their assets to non-profits.  To be generous and compassionate because they know it's the right thing to do.

mAIDens of Michigan

Today an article appeared in the Traverse City Record Eagle about mAIDens of Michigan and how we just raised $8,000 at a potluck for women.  Shown here in the photo is my dear friend, Brenda Biederman, and me holding our food in her kitchen.


Brenda founded mAIDens in 2008 sending out invitations to her "girlfriends" to come to her house, and bring a dish to pass as well as a personal donation.

I had heard about a woman in Washington DC that had her friends come for a potluck dinner once a month and contribute what it would cost them to go out to a nice dinner to support local women in need.  I told Brenda about it and she said, "We can do that here." And so, after four potlucks, we have raised $27,000.

We contact local human service organizations to get stories of women who need some help that will make a positive change in their lives.  Two particularly gratifying stories are two women who needed restorative dental work.  Through grants from mAIDens, they both received a full set of teeth and gained the confidence to secure full time work.

A small committee receives the applications and grants all the money until the next potluck where the stories of whom we have helped are shared.

My daughter-in-law was here from Atlanta over the weekend and when she saw the article she said she could do the same thing back home.  In fact, we hope others will feel the same way and we'll eventually have mAIDens for Michigan all over the state.

Women's Corporate Influence

As reported in research from the Center on Philanthropy, women are a strong influence on couple giving.  Would Bill Gates have given as much without Melinda, he says probably not and it wouldn’t be as much fun.

Taking this concept a step further, what role can women play in corporate giving and investment?  If women used their influence, what dollars could be unlocked to be given and invested.  Not only women who are in positions of power within the companies and on their boards, but spouses of the men who serve in those positions.

I recently read Fareed Zakaria’s column and Jon Meachem’s editorial in Newsweek.  They suggested that the private sector could unleash a corporate stimulus similar to the government’s stimulus package.  They threw out a challenge.  “The Federal Reserve recently reported that America’s 500 largest nonfinancial companies have accumulated an astonishing $1.8 trillion of cash on their balance sheets.  By any calculation (for example, as a percentage of assets, this is higher than it has been in almost half a century.  And yet, most corporations are not spending this money on new plants, equipment or workers…[Such] investments would likely have greater effect and staying power than a government stimulus.”

We know that despite some inroads, most corporate CEO’s are males, as are a majority of the board members of the largest corporations.  All of whom most likely have spouses.  What if these spouses were to suggest that the corporations give more to charity and invest more in the future of America?  Would women have the same kind of influence on corporate giving as they do on the couple’s individual giving?  Maybe not but perhaps we should try.  Try being bold not only in family giving but in influencing corporate giving and investment through our husband's positions.  Just a thought.

Women are Making Household Philanthropic Decisions and Maintaining Giving in the US

Although overall philanthropic giving was down in 2009, it was not as drastic as during the 1974 recession, according to the Giving USA Foundation, chaired by Edith Falk, and the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

The study authors at the Center theorize that charitable giving is in a stronger position now than it was three decades ago and average household giving has increased because:

“The fundraising profession has matured and expanded with greater numbers of people being solicited, and women—who make most philanthropic decisions and who are likely to give more than men with similar incomes—now represent 50 percent of the labor force, providing them with more control of their own resources.”

You can read Giving USA’s press release which provides a three-page overview of the study at Giving USA.