Females Changing Face of Philanthropy

BY FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@MiamiHerald.com

Abby Brown, once a troubled teenager facing an uncertain future, sees herself as an example of what can come from the power of women.

She was a freshman in a dropout prevention program at Fort Lauderdale's Stranahan High when she was exposed to highly accomplished professional women who mentored her in the Women of Tomorrow program. They helped Brown get $11,000 in scholarships from their group and the Florida Marlins Foundation, and now a girl with a painful childhood who once endured foster care is living on her own at age 18, working for a state agency and studying nursing at Broward Community College.

All because women volunteered their time -- and money.

''They changed my life,'' Brown said. ``Where I was from, you would never see a woman judge or a policewoman. When they came to my school, I was in awe when I saw all the things a woman could do. It inspired me to think outside the box.''

Women of Tomorrow is a group of all-women professional volunteers who visit at-risk students at local high schools. They underscore what experts say is a trend in philanthropy: more and more women offering their time and money, changing the traditional face of giving in communities. Unlike men, who are more likely to write a check, experts say women donors want to get involved and know where their money is going.

''Women control more of this country's wealth than men,'' said Lisa Witter, co-author of the new book The She Spot, Why Women are the Market for Changing the World and How to Reach Them (Berrett-Koehler, $24.95).

'There used to be a sense when talking about big donors, `Don't talk to women, they take too long to make a decision.' But women are loyal and are more likely to get their friends involved.''

They've also recently surpassed men as the most prolific givers.

REVERSED RATIO

Gifts from women topped those from men by almost $5 billion in 2005, according to the most recent IRS gift tax data. That's a reversal from the ratio in the IRS' last study of gender in 1997, when men gave $17.6 billion in gifts and women gave only $14.7 billion. The IRS' most recent quarterly statistics of income bulletin shows that in 2005 female donors reported giving $21.7 billion in gifts, while male donors gave $16.8 billion.

Witter's book pitches the four C's: care, control, connect and cultivate. It's the message she says organizations need to remember when trying to get women to donate: Women want to know and care about the projects they give to, want to connect more of their friends to it, want to feel they have control over their lives and can be cultivated as life-time donors.

''Organizations understand that women have their own money,'' said Witter, who runs Fenton Communications, a public interest communications firm in New York. ``But they have not changed the way they communicate. They are still waiting for that rich guy's check.''

According to the Women's Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University, the IRS reported that in 2005, 46.3 percent of the nation's richest people -- those with gross assets over $675,000 -- were women. That's a 36 percent increase from 1998.

These women had a combined net worth of $6.3 trillion. Women are responsible for 83 percent of consumer purchases, making them the market to tap when looking for donations, particularly as more women fill high-paying jobs.

Miami banker Adrienne Arsht's $30 million donation to the Carnival Performing Arts Center in downtown Miami was enough to get the center renamed in her honor.

''Because women are working in powerful positions, more have their own money -- their own significant money,'' said Gloria Danovitz of the American Red Cross in Greater Miami and the Keys. ``Statistics show women make the decisions on how much money is spent in a household because they are bringing in significant amounts of it.''

TIFFANY CIRCLE

The Red Cross started a pilot project three years ago called The Tiffany Circle, targeting women donors. Last year, it raised $375,000. It was the first time the Red Cross specifically targeted women for donations.

The United Way started noticing about a decade ago that more women were volunteering their wealth and not just their time, said Mary Young, who chairs the United Way's Women's Leadership Council. Last year, the United Way's Women's Leadership group raised $2 million.

At Hands on Miami, an umbrella volunteer organization, 70 percent of the group's 15,000 volunteers are female.

''That says a whole lot about women's commitment to this community,'' said CEO Pat Morris.

Claudia Kitchens, executive director of the Women's Fund of Miami-Dade, said the movement targeting women started in the '80s in California. The Women's Fund was founded here in 1993.

''More women are becoming more comfortable writing larger checks,'' Kitchens said. ``Whether for them it's $1,000 or $10,000, they are realizing they can. Our goal is to encourage women to know they can be powerful philanthropists.''