Giving Compass' Take:
- Heather McLeod Grant and Jessica Robinson Love examine the role of women donors in catalyzing more giving as the great wealth transfer begins.
- How might women donors approach giving differently to spur systems change in the midst of the great wealth transfer between generations?
- Learn more about best practices in philanthropy.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits in your area.
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By now you’ve likely heard about the impending wealth transfer, and that close to $35 trillion will soon end up in the hands of women, complementing income they’ve earned from work. What will women choose to do with this windfall? What will the role of women donors look like? How much will they invest, spend, share with their heirs, or give back to society? As advisors to donors and nonprofits, we know firsthand the impact this wealth can have, and we’re optimistic that much of it will be deployed through philanthropy or values-aligned investing to address our world’s most pressing problems. This isn’t just wishful thinking: data indicates that women are more generous than men.
Take the ultra-wealthy women who’ve recently made headlines for giving away their fortunes. Melinda Gates has been carving out her own giving path via Pivotal Ventures since divorcing Bill Gates and recently pledged $12 billion to women’s empowerment. MacKenzie Scott has garnered media attention for donating more than $19 billion to thousands of nonprofits in just a few years via Yield Giving. Laurene Powell Jobs has been quietly building out her philanthropic platform, Emerson Collective, for more than a decade. And it’s not just about the billionaires. These headlines portend a larger, more subtle trend that is just beginning to reshape philanthropy, and which has important implications for donors of all magnitudes, wealth managers, donor advisors, and the social sector writ large.
As longtime advisors to family and individual donors, we've noticed that, in terms of the role of women donors, our female clients tend to approach their giving differently from their spouses (in heterosexual couples), and have different needs from their male counterparts—whether they are the wealth creator, are married to a wealth creator, or have inherited wealth from their families. Curious to explore this trend, we teamed up with donor advisor Kimberly Dasher Tripp and Miki Akimoto of the National Center for Family Philanthropy (NCFP) to run a pilot program advising a small group of newly wealthy Bay Area women on their giving. We also scanned the academic research on women donors, attended relevant conferences such as Women Moving Millions, and interviewed a number of leaders in the women donors space.
Read the full article about the role of women donors by Heather McLeod Grant and Jessica Robinson Love at Stanford Social Innovation Review.