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<\/p>\nInterest in supporting nonprofit groups that help women and girls has grown in the last year, the groups\u2019 leaders and philanthropic advisers say, some of it the result of a younger generation\u2019s push for parents to focus on the cause.<\/p>\n
But because the biggest charities often use their money to help many interests, it can be hard to find which ones can best accomplish what you want.<\/p>\n
So ahead of International Women\u2019s Day on Monday, I spoke with donors, advisers and organizations about the factors that go into deciding which groups to support. And the common advice was to give to small nonprofit organizations that work directly with women or girls or to look for ways to make sure bigger organizations spend the money in the ways you intended.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of pressure from the next generation to have a mission and to be intentional about where your funds are going,\u201d said Kathryn George, chairwoman of the Center for Women & Wealth at the private bank Brown Brothers Harriman. \u201cYou can give to your alma mater, but instead of giving to the general use fund, set up a scholarship for women. If you\u2019re giving to a museum, why not give money to curate an exhibition on women or diversity?\u201d<\/p>\n
The difficulty for donors who are trying to help a particular cause \u2014 whether it be women, or children with reading difficulties \u2014 is that information about it is often lost in broader and long-established philanthropic categories. To help those struggling young readers, for instance, you could look at religious organizations, higher education, or health and human services. All are probably doing something, but it\u2019s not clear which would best reflect your interests.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, donations that help women and girls don\u2019t initially appear to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn health and human services, the most impacted sector is women, but you\u2019re not going to see data collection around women \u2014 it\u2019s how much money is going into the human service area,\u201d said Jane Searing, a managing director in Deloitte Tax\u2019s private wealth group who sits on the board of the Washington Women\u2019s Foundation, a giving circle in Seattle. \u201cBut if you sliced and diced it, a large majority of funds goes to help women.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Women\u2019s Philanthropy Institute, at Indiana University\u2019s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, has tried to quantify donations to groups focused on women and girls, but even its leaders admit that their efforts have limits.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be challenging to define this group, because many charitable organizations have multiple arms, and some serve women and girls,\u201d said Jeannie Sager, the institute\u2019s director.<\/p>\n
Here are some of the experiences of donors and their advisers.<\/p>\n
David Calhoun, president and chief executive of Boeing, said he had supported diversity in all of his donations but was particularly interested when he could find a grass-roots organization to back.<\/p>\n
Mr. Calhoun said he supported diversity initiatives at his alma mater, Virginia Tech, but was also the largest donor to LiveGirl, a nonprofit organization focused on building confidence in middle and high school girls in Connecticut.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe easy thing for me to do would be to find the biggest organization that does this and throw money at them,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the opportunity is big enough to seed organizations like LiveGirl. We need a lot of folks at the grass-roots level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Calhoun got to know a founder, Sheri West, when both worked at General Electric many years ago, and that made it easier to give to a lesser-known group, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe started really small and had a vision for it, and it blossomed because of her energy,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I find another Sheri, I\u2019ll do it again and again and again. It\u2019s the best money you can spend. Giving to the big organizations isn\u2019t the best way to do this. They\u2019ve been around for a long time, and they\u2019re still losing ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
Large, longstanding organizations generally work on a national level. Sarah Ross Soter, a philanthropist in Palm Beach, Fla., said she was frustrated by the lack of research into women\u2019s heart health. Since heart disease runs in her family, she said, she approached the American Heart Association to set up a fund to support that research.<\/p>\n
She and her husband, Bill, gave $5.6 million to the campaign, bringing their total donations to the heart association to more than $16 million. The women\u2019s cardiovascular research center at New York University\u2019s medical school carries her name.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I would really like to do is make people more aware of what heart disease is and how easy it is to begin to change it,\u201d Ms. Soter said. \u201cI want people to realize it is the No. 1 killer of women, and the younger you are to learn this the better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Certain organizations support women\u2019s needs generally, but it is still better to lay out your wishes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re giving money to food pantries \u2014 the hungry, the poor, the working poor \u2014 it\u2019s primarily women and children who benefit,\u201d Ms. Searing of Deloitte Tax said. \u201cIn the arts, if you want to fund women artists, you\u2019re going to have to designate that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some donors may need to look more closely to find where a large organization is spending its money, said Julie Neitzel, partner and adviser at WE Family Offices, which advises wealthy families. She pointed to the Miami Foundation, which makes grants in the community to organizations that support equity, including initiatives targeted at women, and the National Association of Corporate Directors, which is helping to add more women to corporate boards.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about raising awareness and understanding in allocating resources to women and girls \u2014 on the individual, community and national level,\u201d Ms. Neitzel said. \u201cIt makes us better communities and corporate organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jennifer Buczek Ezring of New Canaan, Conn., a partner at the law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel, had been supporting her alma mater and Multiplying Good, a nonprofit organization that promotes community service.<\/p>\n
When her daughter, now 12, was entering middle school, Ms. Ezring reached out to LiveGirl to learn more and ended up becoming a donor and sitting on its board.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat makes people want to give is clear evidence, a compelling story and demonstrable results, particularly when we\u2019re talking about a time of uncertainty in everyone\u2019s lives,\u201d she said. \u201cYou want to make sure your efforts and your dollars are going to what you desire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Organizations that are self-funded and local face a challenge if they want to become large enough to attract donors. What has worked is starting local, to prove the concept, and then teaming up with more established organizations for validation.<\/p>\n
In Connecticut, the Fairfield County Community Foundation\u2019s Fund for Women and Girls was started in 1998 with a $30,000 donation from one person. It now has about $17 million in assets, accounting for 10 percent of the community foundation\u2019s assets.<\/p>\n
Some of its first programs targeted single mothers who were struggling to finish community college, and its success brought the fund attention and more donations. Recently, the fund started a program to improve health care and economic well-being for women in Bridgeport, the state\u2019s largest city and one of its poorest.<\/p>\n
The focus of the fund\u2019s giving has been \u201corganizations with a good concept and a good vision that are inclusive and effective,\u201d said Juanita James, president and chief executive of the Fairfield County foundation.<\/p>\n
LiveGirl started in 2014 in New Canaan, Ms. West\u2019s affluent hometown, but has branched out to Stamford and other economically diverse communities in the state. It worked in partnership with the 13 Boys & Girls Clubs in Connecticut to increase its reach.<\/p>\n
Its signature program is Confidence Club, which helps girls improve their self-esteem and confidence in middle and high school. In the last year, with the pandemic affecting in-person learning and mental health, LiveGirl extended its SheWorks internship program to cover time off from school and added one-to-one mental health counseling. Last year, it worked with 2,000 girls.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re supporting these girls and giving them the experience to thrive,\u201d Ms. West said. \u201cWe have to make sure our most vulnerable young girls are supported. You\u2019ve got to fund the world you want to see.\u201d<\/p>\n