HOW TO MAKE YOUR GIVING COUNT: THE BACKSTORY IS FEMALE
I’m seeing tangible evidence and growing acknowledgment across philanthropy and policy arenas that when you fund women’s causes, you get the greatest bang for each philanthropic buck. Women have become “the investment of choice.”
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon puts it this way: “As we know from long and indisputable experience, investing in women and girls has a multiplier effect on productivity and sustained economic growth.”
Once considered a niche issue, women’s causes are becoming the accepted path to social entrepreneurship and lasting social change, whether in Oakland, California or Bangalore, India.
“There’s considerable evidence to suggest that putting $1 in hands of woman, even if the $1 is used by a man, has a significant impact on the household,” says Guy Stuart, associate professor of public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
No less a male bastion and world-class investor than Goldman Sachs has noted this shift since 2007, dubbing it “womenomics.” Betting on women as the 21st century’s economic engine, Goldman foundation has committed an unparalleled $100 million to train women entrepreneurs in a worldwide initiative called “10,000 women.”
Other initiatives include:
– The successful and ongoing $150 million fundraising campaign called “Women Moving Millions,” sponsored by the Women’s Funding Network, which is tapping affluent women donors for $1 million or more each to fund women’s causes. As of February 2009, the effort had reeled in $113 million
– The Women Donors Network, a private group of well-heeled women who fund social advocacy, such as a marketing campaign to change the conversation about reproductive rights
– United Way’s recently launched Women’s Leadership Councils (WLCs), which is playing a key role in how women engage in community groups across the U.S.
– CARE’s repositioning over the past two years to be entirely woman-facing, both on the supply or donor side and on the demand or program side
With the recession hitting hard, the paradigm for fixing social ills, already weakened, is breaking down. Several weeks back, the World Bank announced that the worldwide slump had more in common with the 1930s Depression than with the downturns of the 1970s and 1980s.
Given the times, individual donors and private foundations as well as government and public charities face painful reinvention, reduced resources and mounting need in charitable giving. No one can afford overlapping efforts and squandered efforts anymore. The name of the new game is “impact.”
As a result, “sign-of-the-times” giving demands strong partnerships and strategic alliances, especially as dozens of charities fail to attract new or even existing funders. One consultant estimates that a third of the country’s nonprofits will be shuttered over the next two years.
Organizations that can leverage program and fundraising efforts, nurture donor and organizational relationships and forge collaborations will survive to make a difference.
In other words — the skills women are known for.
Plus, women today have gained the dough and professional know-how to pull up chairs at decision-making tables. They are proving that funding women, which embraces education, training, family and child services and entrepreneurship, clearly benefits the community, the society and our future.
Stay tuned to this space to hear about women who are choosing to fund women and the eye-opening, practical ways they are building the kind of bonds that lead to change and impact.