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Strategy 3: Expose Sex Bias
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The gender gap in charitable giving
is not widely known or understood. Too many of the major
charities hide behind the position that they are ostensibly
meeting the needs of women and girls through their broad-based
programs.
Most foundations, public charities and
nonprofits do not keep track of the number of women
and girls that they serve relative to the number of
men and boys. Nor do they track the percentage of their
clients who are people of color.
National research projects concerning
this question are now underway. The National Council
for Research on Women is conducting a project with the
National Network of Women's Funds and Women and Foundations/Corporate
Philanthropy that explores the processes by which grantmaking
allocations are set.
You can start a research project of your
own at the community level. Organize a group of feminists
to ask local chapters of national agencies and community-based
non-profits for detailed information about their services
and their clients. Your group can then demand that agencies
provide feminist-based programs for the women and girls
in their area.
If the agencies prove unresponsive, go
to the media. Making public gender bias among the charities
in your community will provide you with critical leverage
in instituting change. The last thing a non-profit needs
is unfavorable publicity that would diminish its donor
base.
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Strategy 4: Consider Legal Action
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Sometimes, legal action is the most
effective way to make change. Cases were brought successfully
against Boys Clubs in California and Michigan in the
late 1970s and early 1980s to get them to open up the
doors to girls.
Little League was also successfully sued
in the 1970s to win admittance for girls. And educational
institutions at every level were sued to gain equal
treatment for girls and women.
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Strategy 5:Earmark Your Donations
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Women who make donations to "broadbased"
interests should earmark their contributions for feminist
programs.
Your donation can make a difference!
More than 80% of the philanthropic support for nonprofit
groups comes from individual donors like you.
You may already be making gifts to universities,
hospitals, or other institutions. Earmark your gift
toward a specific program that supports services or
advocacy for women and girls. Here are some examples:
- Target donations for feminist advocacy programs
such as the National Organization for Women.
- Target a gift to your alma mater for a women's
studies program, women's sports or campus child
care facility.
- Earmark a donation to a hospital for breast cancer
research.
- Specify that your gift to a community center be
used to fund a program for battered women.
- Contribute to feminist family planning clinics
that are being harassed and are fighting to stay
open.
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Strategy 6: Find Out Where the Money
Goes
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It's not enough to know that your donations
are targeted toward programs that help women and girls.
You must also make sure that those programs incorporate
feminist goals and philosophies.
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Strategy 7: Support Feminist Advocacy
Programs
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You can also help by directing more
of your dollars to feminist nonprofit groups. These
groups provide a wide range of essential services to
women and girls.
Give special attention to advocacy programs
that advance the political, social and economic status
of women. According to the American Association of Fund
Raising Counsel, only 4% of all philanthropic contributions
goes to groups that promote social equality of all kinds.
This means, of course, that only an infinitesimal share
of the donations find their way to advocacy programs
that help women and girls specifically.
In addition to making your own gifts,
ask your employer to add some of these groups to the
fund-raising drives they sponsor. And challenge the
community groups to which you belong to make donations,
too. Here are some of the many groups that need your
help:
National Women's Rights Organizations
- Professional Women's Groups & Caucuses
- Women's Labor Groups
- Organizations Serving Women of Color
- Women's Studies Programs and Centers
- Commissions on Issues Affecting Women
- Feminist Publications and Media
- Global Women's Groups
- Women's Services such as:
- Rape Crisis Centers
- Battered Women's Shelters
- Family Planning Clinics
- Women's Legal Defense Funds
National Groups Supporting Feminist
Issues such as:
- Child Care
- Disabled Women
- Displaced Homemakers
- Economic Equity
- Educational Equity
- Family Planning
- Homeless Women
- Lesbian Rights
- Older Women
- Violence Against Women
- Women in Arts
- Women in Poverty
- Women in Sports
- Women of Color
- Women Prisoners
- Women's Health
- Young Women
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Strategy 8: Increase Individual Donations
from Women
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While the women's community must break
through the gender barriers of more traditional charities,
individual women or feminist donors must finance their
own social, economic and political power. Encourage
your family, friends, and co-workers to target their
giving to women's empowerment.
A 1991 report by the National Society
of Fund Raising Executives (NSFRE) indicates that many
women would give more if they were asked to do so.
To date very little research has been
done on what motivates women to give to nonprofits and
how to tap women as a financial resource. Anecdotal
evidence compiled by the NSFRE indicates that women
like to know exactly how their donations will be used
and assured that their gifts are used wisely. Many also
want to hear about the results.
According to the NSFRE, many women tend
to volunteer their time to an organization before they
make a financial commitment.
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Strategy 9: Start Planned Giving
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Women of means must be encouraged to
target a greater share of their wealth for programs
that serve women and girls. Planned giving can help
make the most of feminist dollars. There are a variety
of income and estate tax laws that feminists can use
for planned giving strategies to maximize donations.
In addition to cash donations, it is
possible to donate securities, real estate, and personal
property and receive significant tax benefits that make
it possible to give an even larger donation. A feminist
nonprofit group can also be the beneficiary of a life
insurance policy or bequest.
Property can also be put in a trust that
will provide the donor with income while alive or provide
a charity with income until the donor's death - at which
time the property returns to the donor's heir.
