The Pentera Blog
Study Makes "Strong Case" for New Investment in Women's and Girls' Charities
Americans are donating more to organizations aimed at helping women and girls, but these contributions make up only a small fraction of overall charitable giving in the U.S., according to the third annual Women's and Girl's Index (WGI) released by the Women's Philanthropy Institute (WPI) at Indiana University. Claudine A. Donikian, Pentera's president and CEO, recently concluded a seven-year term on the WPI's advisory council.
Charitable gifts to the nation's tens of thousands of women's and girls' nonprofits, such as health clinics, Girl Scout chapters, domestic violence shelters, and women's colleges and universities, topped $8 billion in 2018—the most recent year for which the WGI has data. While that figure represents a 6% increase over the previous year, it remains a small fraction—less than 2%—of all U.S. charitable giving.
Women's and girls' nonprofits exist in nearly every charitable sector, including health, education, and the arts. In 2018 women's and girls' organizations focused specifically on the environment and civil rights saw the largest increases in their funding. Environmental groups saw their contributions increase by 37.1%, and those focused on civil rights and advocacy rose 32.3%.
The study's authors note their data does not reflect charitable giving affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is widely seen to have worsened gender equality around the world. They argue the effects of the pandemic, combined with the fact that giving to women's and girls' charities represent such a small share of total giving, makes a "strong case for investment in these organizations."
Including data from 47,449 charities, the WGI, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is the only comprehensive index that measures charitable giving to women's and girls' organizations in the U.S. The WPI is part of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University.
