Women's Philanthropic Prowress

Martha Taylor and Sondra at our AFP book signing

Four sessions about Women and Philanthropy were held at the annual conference of the Association of Fundraising Professionals last week.  Martha and I were there presenting as was the Women's Philanthropy Institute and authors, Margaret May Damen and Nicki McCuistion.  We also had a book signing.

But another session was brought to our attention by Holly Hall (we were delighted she attended our session) from the Chronicle of Philanthropy which she wrote up in the March 22 issue under the headline, "Women Are Becoming Better Prospects for Fundraisers."  The session was conducted by Susan U. Raymond, a New York economist and executive vice president of Changing Our World, a fund-raising consulting company.

Among the data Ms. Raymond presented was:

• Wealth controlled by women in the US and Canada will grow 30 percent by 2014.
• Women now control more than 50 percent of the wealth in Denmark, Finland, France, German, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
• Forty-one percent of all American businesses are owned by women.
• One in 11 American women owns her own business and if these firms were a country, they would be right behind Germany in size. 

As we have always said, women have the money and the intent, they just need to be asked.

AFP Recognizes The Importance of Women's Philanthropy

Three education sessions about one women's philanthropy in one day! That's what's happening at the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP} International Conference on March 22 in Chicago's McCormick Place.  Obviously the topic is resonating internationally, as it should.

From 8 to 9, will be a session titled, "A Case Study in Global Women's Philanthropy in the 21st Century," put on by the Center on Philanthropy and Lions Club International.

At 9:15 Martha Taylor and I will do a session, "Women, Money and Philanthropy" and following that, Margaret May Damen and Niki Nicastro McCuistion will talk about the boomer generation of women in their session, "Women, Wealth and Giving."

Closing the conference that day is President Bill Clinton.  What a day!

Girls Are More Likely to Support Charities Using Social Medua

Interesting article in today's Chronicle of Philanthropy

February 24, 2011, 11:20 am

By Derek Lieu

A new study by the charity World Vision finds that more than half of teenage girls said they had become more aware of the needs of others as a result of using social networks like Facebook and Twitter, while less than a third of boys said the same thing.

Out of a survey group of more than 500 youngsters ages 13 to 17, 41 percent of girls said they interact with charities online by “liking” Facebook pages and following Twitter profiles, compared with 27 percent of boys.

Fifty-one percent of girls said they had become more aware of the needs of others as a result, while just 38 percent of boys said that.

As expected, the study found high overall levels of social media use: Four out of five teenagers surveyed said they used social networks.

World Vision sponsored the study to coincide with its annual 30 Hour Famine, scheduled for February 25-26, in which teenagers fast for 30 hours to raise money for global poverty. The event, which raised $10.4-million dollars last year, has set a goal of $11-million for 2011. World Vision expects 200,000 participants.

The study was conducted online by Harris Interactive in January.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=thirty+hour+famine&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

"The Charity Divide: Study Shows Women More Generous Givers than Men"

There's a great article in the Friday, February 11 Time magazine about the recent study by the Women's Philanthropy Institute.  Dr. Debra Mesch, the director of the institute is quoted.  She says, "It is not just the older white males [giving], we are seeing women really growing in terms of philanthropy." The study is titled "Women Give 2010."

It is a wonderful lead up to the international symposium, "Women World Wide Leading Through Philanthropy," to be held in Chicago, March 10 and 11 sponsored by the Center on Philanthropy.  We are pleased that the second Shaw-Hardy Taylor Achievement Award will be presented by Martha Taylor at the symposium .

Philanthropy and Memoirs

I am thrilled to report that my home town newspaper recently published an article about books my daughter and I have had published.  The Traverse City, Michigan Record Eagle newspaper article, titled "Mother's, daughter's books" featured both our books.  The mention means so much to me because Heather Shaw, whose book is Write, Memory is not only my daughter but was also an editor for our book, Women and Philanthropy, Boldly Shaping a Better World.  You can read more about Heather on her blog.

From the 6 C's to the 4 C's

Last September, I spoke to the Dining For Women's Leadership Summit in Atlanta and I wanted to share some of what an attendee from Atlanta, Alexis Atwood had to say about a new personal twist on the C's of women's giving. In my keynote address, I had explained the 6 C's of women's giving and then said that I read Donna Karan also had her own C's: cashmere, cotton, candles, and compassion.  In the excerpt below, Alexis takes it from there.

                     Leadership Summit, Friday, September 24th, 2010, 8:00 PM

In closing, Sondra discussed the idea of four personal “C’s “. It’s simply words that begin with the letter “C” that describe yourself, three of which are personal and the fourth being philanthropic. Sondra told us that her “Four C’s” were Comfort, Coffee, Cologne, and Caring, and then she asked each one of us to determine our own “Four C’s.” Upon returning to our room for the evening with several Atlanta chapter ladies in tow, we found ourselves discussing our “Four C’s.” After claiming that it seemed difficult, with most of us thinking only of food items…Cheeseburgers, Cookies, Cheese, Cupcakes, Chocolate, etc… (I mean, yum!!!) we suddenly started finding our own words… Clever, Compassionate, Creative, Contagious Personality, Confidence, Character, Co-creating... It appears that when we women give ourselves just a few moments to actually think about ourselves (because you know we often forget to do that!), we remember what really lies beneath, why the women’s philanthropic movement is thriving and growing, and why we are a part Dining for Women.

- Alexis Atwood

The Women's Funding Network and Collective Power

My daughter-in-law, Christina Shaw, and I recently had lunch in San Francisco with Chris Grumm, President and CEO of the Women's Funding Network (WFN).  We had a pleasant chat about the problems associated with owning an older home, the upcoming holidays and the past and future of women's philanthropy.

I asked Chris, based on all she has accomplished with and for women and girls, what four important programs remain to be done.  She said we need to:

    -provide women with surround services such as child and health care
    -increase the number of business development opportunities for women
    -help women with asset development
    -provide more training and education to help women become economically independent

These four important services will be the focus of the Network's fundraising for the future. But Chris says in a December 26, 2010 article in Women's eNews:

"To do that, we need a movement of people conducting research, identifying solutions and mobilizing opinion and lawmaking.

We also need an overall vision of the sort of balanced society that we seek, where women and girls have a chance to reach their fullest potential. Otherwise we are all left struggling with the deadening consequences of poverty and inequality across the board.

To serve this vision, leaders in women's philanthropy know we must scale up our movement building.

The Women Moving Millions Campaign -- our partnership with visionary philanthropists Swanee and Helen LaKelly Hunt – is just the start of what we can achieve through our collective power."

Chris has set the bar very high for all of us working with women and philanthropy.  I know how very different the world is now from even ten years ago because of the presence and activity of women's funds.  Attention has been created through the funds themselves, the WFN, and attention from the media.  Now we need to turn this focus into action so Chris' four  programs will be mainstreamed and funded, not only by women's funds, but by foundations, men, and everyone who cares about what our world should look like and be about.