A new report is examining trends and motivations of large scale investments by female high net worth donors for women and girls’ issues and causes.

The IUPUI Women’s Philanthropy Institute (WPI), part of the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, has released the new report: Giving By And For Women: Understanding high net-worth donors’ support for women and girls.

The research dives into what engages these donors in gender equity advancement and some of the key takeaways around this donor group.

What the data tells us about donations for women and girls causes:

• In 2015, WPI did a survey of giving for women and girls issues and causes and found that 33 percent of women and 25 percent of men said they made a gift for a women and girls cause or issue

• Between 2000 and 2014 only 1.2 percent of million dollar plus gifts went to specifically benefit women and girls

• The study notes that research estimates that only 7 percent of all foundation grants in the U.S. and Europe are specifically targeted to benefit women and girls.

• Researchers found that women had three major motivations for such giving: personal experiences of gender discrimination or inequality; a belief in supporting women’s rights and gender parity; and the positive perception and effectiveness of nonprofit organizations serving women and girls

At a time when gender pay disparities are apparent, sexual harassment conversations are growing and a lack of access to education and health care persist around the globe continue, the report points to the need for support for women and girls.

Researchers wanted to learn more about the individual donors giving to women and girls causes and what drives them. Working with the Women Moving Millions organization, they interviewed a cohort of women who have made a commitment of $1 million or more to women and girls’ causes

Key takeaways about these donors from the report:

• They engaged in research and education before making large gifts: For many of the women surveyed, they did not grow up in a wealthy family, they said they saw philanthropic work or were exposed to acts of kindness at an early age. As they came into wealth they felt a responsibility to leverage it to help others and did research and education around philanthropic ways they could lead to change.

• They were motivated by their identity as a woman as an influencer to support women and girls: For many participants, their lived experiences in their gender or learning about the inequities facing other women and girls motivated them to support change.  

• They made strategic funding decisions focused on systems-level change: Donors tended to fund “upstream,” or fund organizations with new approaches.

• Open to risk taking: Many of the women self-identified as “risk takers,” saying they were willing to fund emerging programs and new organizations worldwide knowing they may or may not have the outcomes they wanted.

• They’re supporting women and girls through various innovative ways: About 44 percent of those surveyed said they were engaged in impact investing by making a program-related investment (PRI), loan to a nonprofit, and/or supporting women-owned businesses or social enterprises by providing capital.

There are some specific efforts in Michigan to further engage women in the impact investing ecosystem. More than a year ago, Mission Throttle, a Michigan-based social impact strategy firm, founded by Phillip Fisher, chair of the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, The Philanthropic Initiative and Mission Investors Exchange created a movement called Women Leading the Way in Impact Investing, an initiative to accelerate the growth of impact investing.

The initiative is designed to address barriers to high net worth women engaging in impact investing and led to a field scan to research opportunities for accelerating impact investing among women. Read their findings here. 

The report includes that beyond the pool of high net worth donors featured in this report, there’s been great gains made through the Women’s Funding Network (WFN), which engages more than 100 funders, making it the largest philanthropic network in the world devoted to women and girls. In 2015, WFN members invested over $410 million to advance gender equity.

In addition to WFN, The Women Donors Network is another example of a network of more than 200 individual women philanthropists who contribute $175 million annually to causes for social change.

“Getting beyond a culture of male dominance will create a force for good where women lead forward,” Fisher said. “Continuing to amplify the voices of women for community change will speed the movement and ultimately serve more people in need.”

Join the Michigan Grantmakers for Women and Girls affinity group on March 8 in Detroit on International Women's Day for a conversation about how foundations can invest in women and women's issues and creating actionable steps for 2018. 

Want more?

Read the full report: Giving By And For Women: Understanding high net-worth donors’ support for women and girls.

Connect with the Women Donors Network.

Learn more about the Women’s Funding Network.