K athleen Loehr should have been an easy prospect for Cornell University’s fund-raisers. One of eight siblings who all graduated from the university, she had also once led its President’s Council of

Cornell Women. But as her 35th class reunion approached, she

found herself turned off by the barrage of impersonal e-mails and phone calls from the institution’s devel-opment office.

“They were just asking me to give and not remem-bering everything I’d done for Cornell,” says Ms. Loehr, a managing director at the Orr Associates fundraising consulting firm who has also worked at the American Red Cross and other charities.

Finally, one fundraiser took the time to do some research and acknowledged Ms. Loehr’s long history of aiding the university before asking how she might want to contribute in her reunion year.

“That’s the person I responded to,” she says, adding that she had planned to give $350, but because the

fundraiser made an effort to learn more, she contrib-uted $1,000.

Personal ApproachMs. Loehr’s experience is not unique. Women donors are increasingly demanding a more

personal approach from nonprofits, yet they say fund-raisers have been slow to deliver.

Too many charity appeals are “transactional, male-driven, goal-driven, reunion-timed, match-your-peers challenge grants,” says Ms. Loehr.

In failing to meet the needs of female donors, say giving experts, charities are turning their backs on some of their most generous supporters, according to studies that show that women of all income levels outpace men in their giving.

While women often do require personalized ap-proaches, they shouldn’t be ignored, says Donna Hall, leader of the Women Donors Network.

“You really need to look at a woman philanthropist as a complicated, involved person who is an activist

in one way or another, who has a depth of knowledge, or who wants to attain a depth of knowledge before donating.”

Economic FearsAlison Harmon leads the Delta Research and Edu-

cational Foundation, the fundraising arm of the Del-ta Sigma Theta Sorority, which supports charities that work to improve the lives of African-American women and their children.

In her 13 years working there, she says, she has seen its female supporters make ever-larger gifts.

When she arrived, the organization mostly re-ceived $50 to $100 gifts. Now average gifts are $100 to $500.

That’s a sign of the donors’ commitment to the cause but also of women’s overall growing economic clout: “Their work is netting for them more and more dollars,” she says, “and they’re making choices about what they want to do with the resources they have

Continued on Page B19

AUGUST 15, 2013 THE CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY  • B17TOMORROW’S DONORS

Women are more generous than men, but many groups lose out because their appeals are too impersonal.

SHEENA WRIGHTOrganization: United Way of New York City

What’s new: She’s reviving the group’s long-dormant Women’s Leadership Council and hiring new fundraisers to attract female business executives.

Buck Ennis/crain’s nEw York BusinEss

By Maria Di Mento

Women Take an Activist Path to PhilanthropyThey want a depth of knowledge before donating but recoil at pressure tactics

AUGUST 15, 2013 THE CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY  • B19TOMORROW’S DONORS

for giving, and their commitment to giving is increasing.”

And yet fundraisers often struggle to make their case to female donors, even wealthy ones.

When all other income factors are equal, it is generally harder to raise money from women than it is from men, says Lorri Jean, who seeks gifts of $6,000 and up as chief executive of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Cen-ter.

“Usually it’s because they have some income insecurity that I almost never hear from the men, and it ranges from they’ve got kids in college to they are concerned about their retirement to they don’t have the same level of con-fidence that they are going to be mak-ing the same amount of money in the future as they’re making today,” says Ms. Jean.

Debra Mesch, a scholar at Indiana University-Purdue University who con-ducts studies of women donors, says that caution is born out of the reality of most women’s lives: They are much more risk-averse investors than men; they worry more about their retire-ment savings because they live longer; and they tend to drop in and out of the labor force more often to care for fam-ily members and thus accumulate less money during their careers.

Yet despite all that, says Ms. Mesch, the data still show that women are more generous.

“Men may have a bigger pie,” she says, “but the women are giving a big-ger slice of their pie to charity.”

Similar ViewsBut that generosity doesn’t mean

women donors are pushovers for a non-profit’s sob story.

Take, for example, Suzanne Sheuer-man, a 57-year-old financial adviser, who lives in the Bay Area. She and her partner, Barb, give about $35,000 a year to charity, supporting mostly groups that help women in developing countries, along with climate-change organizations and public radio.

The couple carves out time every year to make giving decisions methodi-cally. Ms. Sheuerman makes a list of all the groups the couple supported in the previous year and those that are asking for a donation for the first time.

Her partner, a lawyer, then digs deeper, says Ms. Sheuerman: “She goes and researches every nonprofit and looks at how watchdog groups rate them. I think we probably screen out groups more than look for new ones.”

Ms. Sheuerman says she prefers it when charities send her updates about their work rather than asking directly for money.

She does not appreciate fundraisers who won’t take no for an answer when she declines to give more. When that happens, she calls the charity and ex-plains that as a loyal donor she doesn’t want to be inundated with appeals once she has made clear she has given for the year. It usually works.

“Sometimes you have to escalate the issue to the executive director, but peo-ple who work at nonprofits are pretty cool people to begin with, so it’s kind of hard to get mad at them,” she says.

Mahsa Pelosky, a 39-year-old donor in New York, hates it when charities rely on what she considers emotionally manipulative marketing.

She calls such methods “humanitar-ian porn,” such as when a charity uses the most gut-wrenching case studies to goad donors into giving.

“That stuff just really grosses me out,” she says.

Ms. Pelosky, a former corporate mar-keting executive and political fund-raiser who has for the last decade devoted her time to her family’s phi-lanthropy, gives between $70,000 to $100,000 a year to charity with her

husband, a private investor. She pri-marily supports women’s advocacy and antipoverty groups and think tanks.

Today’s wealthy women, she says, are searching for charities whose view of the world matches their own and that are working toward solving social problems that matter most to them, rather than reflexively doling out mon-ey to help the needy, as previous gener-ations of affluent women have done.

In deciding where to give, Ms. Pe-losky focuses on a nonprofit’s leader-ship and structure; she and her hus-band usually give only to groups on whose boards they serve and whose in-

ternal operations they know exception-ally well.

“I prefer the executives that take the road less traveled and are a bit for-ward-looking in their approach to solv-ing a systematic issue, not necessar-ily putting a Band-Aid on something,” says Ms. Pelosky.

The Next GenerationMany charities have been focusing

their efforts on women who broke bar-riers in the 1960s and beyond: The first significant wave of lawyers, doc-tors, chief executives, and others who

Continued on Page B21

Even as They Amass Financial Clout, Women Hold Back Gifts

Sage Nonprofit Solutions is now Abila.

Continued from Page B17

A s women increasingly accu-mulate sufficient wealth to become giving powerhouses,

some nonprofits are now seeking new ways to attract them.

At the United Way of New York City, Sheena Wright—who last year became its first female leader—is reviving the nonprofit’s long-dormant Women’s Leadership Council and focusing on ways to draw business executives to join. Her organization is now hiring new fundraisers who will focus solely on working with women’s professional groups at local corporations to figure out what works best to attract new donors and volun-teers.

Among the first things she took note of when she accepted the job is that 77 percent of her United Way’s board members were men, a vestige of the days when the organization re-lied most heavily on soliciting at big companies, many of which were run by men.

Ms. Wright says she realized from the start that she wanted “to evolve our fundraising strategy to focus on women in corporate America, women

leaders,” she says. “We have the lead-ership council, but it had never really been nourished, so I thought it was a natural opportunity for growth be-cause there are so many women’s af-finity groups in these companies that

are focused on women and their ad-vancement,” she says.

Ms. Wright says her organization will test what works best at 15 com-panies this fall and track the results, then see what needs adjusting.

Polling DonorsThe Ms. Foundation for Women,

which has supported causes im-portant to women and girls during its 40-year-old history, has a well-oiled approach based on the prem-ise that women donors want mes-

sages tailored to their experience and interests. Its appeals are de-signed differently depending on the age, income level, and region of the country where a donor lives and by the causes and issues that are most

likely to strike a chord, says Alesia Soltanpanah, the foundation’s vice president for development.

To glean information about what will spark more giving by each do-nor, it sometimes polls women at its events—including its big annual gala, issue-oriented symposiums, and small gatherings given in a sup-porter’s home.

It also sends an extensive survey annually to all of its donors, asking what issues affecting women they are most concerned about, what one

thing most inspired them to give to the organization, what types of events they like to attend, what Ms. Foundation programs most interest them, and what women they admire and why.

In addition, the charity’s staff con-ducts research to learn what non-profits or causes people who attend its events have supported previously.

As it seeks to figure out what so-licitations will work best, the organi-zation relies heavily on volunteers to give feedback on a new or potential fundraising or marketing approach. It has volunteers throughout the country because people in different regions react in strikingly different ways—especially when it comes to controversial issues, such as protect-ing reproductive rights or fighting bias against lesbians, gays, or trans-gender people.

“You learn from that what to say or do the next time, because some-times there’s anger over words,” says Ms. Soltanpanah. “Not all audiences of all ages and ethnicities under-stand certain terms the same way.”

—Maria Di Mento

Charities Turn to Corporate America to Attract Women

B20  • THE CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY AUGUST 15, 2013TOMORROW’S DONORS

Ms. Foundation for Women designs separate appeals for different ages, income levels, regions of the country, and issues most likely to strike a chord.

how to

n Describe the potential impact of a gift. For most women, philanthropy is about more than just writing a

check—it’s about making a difference. Tell them about the chari-ty’s work in detail, and be specific about what their money can do. “Women think differently before they give their philanthropy to an-other,” says Kathleen Loehr, a managing director at Orr Associates, a fundraising consulting firm. “They are more thoughtful about the bigger picture.”

n Show instead of just telling. Nothing beats a site visit, so show a potential donor what your organization can do with her

money by taking her to see a program in action. “People may say they want metrics, but if they see a really high-quality program, they’re going to follow with their heart,” says Julie Rogers, president of the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation.

n Do your homework. Carefully research a potential donor’s giving history. Find out what she has supported in the

past and how much she’s given. Look for clues about issues on which she is most focused. “That front-end work that takes more time does have a back-end return on investment,” says Ms. Loehr.

n Ignore the status factor. Many woman donors are more interested in solving problems than getting involved with

charity to improve their social standing, so be prepared to show them your organization’s role on the issues they care about. Mahsa Pelosky, a New York donor who gives tens of thousands a dollars a year to antipoverty groups and think tanks, says as she thinks about her dona-tions, she asks herself, “What is my vision of the world and how can I find like-minded people working toward that same thing?”

n Avoid the “hard sell” approach.It’s a turnoff for most women donors. “Women need to be engaged first before they move

into a decision about what they are going to give,” says Ms. Loehr. —Maria Di Mento

Women’s Economic Might: a Snapshot

More women than ever are pursuing high-earning careers and building their own wealth.

Women obtain professional credentials. 46% of law-school students are women48% of medical-school students are women48% of business-school students are women

Women are breadwinners. 40% of households with children under 18 include

a female who is the primary wage earner37% of those are married women who earn more

than their husbands

$80,000 is the median income for households with children in which wives earn more than their husbands

$57,100 is the median income for all households with children

Women are building wealth. 29% The share of businesses owned by women59% The growth in the number of women-owned

businesses since 199741% The rise in the number of businesses over all$1.3-trillion The estimated amount of revenue

generated by women-owned businesses

SourceS: National Center for Education Statistics, 2010; Pew Research Center; U.S. Census and American Express OPEN and Womanable

Reach Women Donors

Note: Sample of 1,109 male and female single heads of households and 277 affluent households.

Women vs. Men: Who’s More Generous?

The wealthiest American women over 50 are more likely to give 3% or more of their income to charity than their male peers.

23%

13%

Those same women give 156% more to charity than affluent men.

SourceS: Women’s Philanthropy Institute, Women Give 2012

MenWomen

followed in their path are now in their prime earning and giving years.

Figuring out how to appeal to them has been a challenge for some chari-ties; solutions that work for older gen-erations don’t always work with young-er ones. While such women want to be

decision makers about their giving, they don’t feel they need to operate separately from the men in their lives to do so. They view such separation as just another cumbersome gender bias.

“These women have grown up with men in the conversation,” says Ms. Loehr, the philanthropy adviser. Com-pared with previous generations, she says, “the men are more enlightened, the men understand the importance of bringing the woman’s voice into the conversation.”

Ms. Hall, of the Women Donors Net-work, says she is also hearing this from her younger donors. It’s causing a rift with some of her group’s older members, many of whom have encoun-tered bias in their careers and from fundraisers.

“We go into strategic planning next year and it’s going to be an interesting and stressful conversation because you have women in their 50s and 60s who value the women’s space for all sorts of reasons that younger women haven’t experienced,” she says. “Yet younger women say they want to be

an empowered woman leader, but they don’t want to do it without men in the room.”

The solution, say fundraisers, is to show that a charity understands that some women want to drive their own giving and others want to share deci-sions equally with men.

The challenge is to figure out what type of approach the donor prefers. That, says Ms. Loehr, gets back to the need for fundraisers to make the effort to cultivate women donors of all ages.

“If we begin to organize ourselves differently for women, we’re going to be able to organize ourselves different-ly for the millennials,” says Ms. Loehr. And, she notes, “when we take the time, we almost always get more dol-lars and more engagement.”

Young Women Want Men’s Input More Than Older Ones DoContinued from Page B19

AUGUST 15, 2013 THE CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY  • B21TOMORROW’S DONORS

“I give where I have personally experienced or learned about the effectiveness of the organization.”

KATHLeeN LoeHrAge: 58

Work: Managing director, Orr Associates

What she supports: Education, international relief, neighborhood charities, women and girls

What turns off one female donor: Charities that rely on emotional case studies in their appeals. To her, it’s “humanitarian porn.”

Ron AiRA, foR The ChRoniCle