Women Philanthropists - Making Change
The Vermont Women’s Fund
“Giving liberates the soul of the giver.”
-Maya Angelou
Although a woman still earns 77 cents for each dollar a man earns, women’s financial power is growing. You might be surprised to know that...
- Women currently control $14 trillion in assets - nearly 60% of the wealth in this country, and predictions are that the assets they control will increase by 57% in the next 10 years.
- In 2005, 43% of the top wealth holders in North America were women.
- Nearly half of all privately-held businesses are women-owned and employ 19.1 million people
- Because women live longer than men, they frequently end up in charge of many of the trillions of dollars now passing from generation to generation.
Although women have historically given less to charities than men during their lifetimes, this is changing: the giving rates of both time and money for women and men business owners is virtually the same. A generation of women - those who started careers in the 1970s - are more financially independent than any previous generation. This translates to more short and long-term philanthropy by women.
The 2004 “Slate 60” (a listing of the 60 largest charitable contributions of the year) contains 11 single women and 24 coupled women; 58% of this list includes women as named philanthropists! We can expect this trend to continue as female baby boomers, now in their prime giving years, are predicted to be the most active group of women philanthropists to date.
Women are making more financial decisions and have a greater pool of resources to spend than ever before. The profile of a woman philanthropist? She’s someone who makes her own giving decisions, is involved and has first-hand knowledge of the organization she’s supporting and is convinced of its efficiency and believes deeply in its mission.
