Giving Compass' Take:

• There is an uptick in women-powered giving compared to male giving, especially during times such as the 2016 election, where donations from women to progressive groups rose sharply. 

• How can nonprofits utilize information on the differences in gender-based giving? 

• Read the Giving Compass Gender and Giving Magazine to learn more. 

Shortly after Donald Trump’s election, women led the charge to protect values that seemed threatened by donating to nonprofits. Turns out, it wasn’t alongside men but generally in spite of them.

During the week after the election, the top earning cause groups that received funds through nonprofit evaluator Charity Navigator recieved an average of $3,900 more per day from women than men, according to a new report from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University. For women giving to specifically progressive groups, the uptick in donations rose sharply from about $1,700 overall in the week before the election to more than $16,000 contributed during the week after.

The top earning individual nonprofits for progressive causes received about $190 more from women than men in the week before the election; that difference jumped 600%–to roughly $1,100 more in the week after.

Trying times, says Mesch, may lead women to act more generously because they think about charity differently than men. “Women are much more likely to be motivated by empathy and altruism—helping others—and men tend to focus more on the benefits that they receive from that giving,” she says.

Of course, WPI’s analysis is limited: It only tracked donations made through Charity Navigator’s online portal.

Among progressive groups, much of the money that WPI tracked went to organizations trying to protect immigration, preserve women’s health rights, and battle climate change.

Women, she says, operate differently, traditionally supporting nonprofits that align with both their political and philosophical values, which may be informed by often being a mother or family caretaker. They also have fewer trust issues. “[W]omen are more confident in the ability of charitable organizations to solve problems,” she says.

The real question may be whether conservative women still feel as passionate about their own camp’s agenda if their leaders are ultimately displaced.

Read the full article about women powered giving by Ben Paynter at Fast Company