The Pentera Blog
Women Are Gaining More and More Financial - And Philanthropic - Power
Gender matters in philanthropy. As many nonprofits have come to realize in the last few years, women are not a niche audience - women are the audience. Numerous studies show that women are more likely than men to give to charity - across all income brackets.
More than ever before, more women are working, more women are highly educated, and more women are single. The result is that women have a higher capacity for giving and are influencing charitable decision-making more than ever before. Consider these statistics from the Census Bureau and the Department of Labor:
- Women now make up about half of the labor force in the United States.
- The proportion of women with college degrees has almost quadrupled since 1970. It is now more common for a woman to earn a bachelor's degree than for a man to earn such a degree.
- Marriage is becoming a less dominant lifestyle. In 2017 the U.S. Census reported 110.6 million unmarried people over the age of 18 - that's 45 percent of the American adult population - and 53 percent of that group is women.
- In 2018 about 11.7 million widows were living in the United States, whereas the number of widowers was only 3.4 million.
According to genderleadershipgroup.com, "Eighty-three percent of everything sold ... is done or influenced by women. That's 7 trillion dollars, larger than the economies of India and China combined." Women are behind almost all healthcare-related decisions for their families and have been called the single most effective force in social transformation. The key is how women catalyze their power.
With women outliving men and the growing proportion of wives earning more than their husbands, much of the estimated $41 trillion of wealth predicted to be transferred to others between 1998 and 2052 will be controlled by women. Not only do women have the power to profoundly influence the world of consumer goods, women also have the power to rouse and accelerate our ability to do good. Doing good with investments can catapult that good to the forefront of social change:
EXAMPLE: A 70-year-old woman who invests $100,000 in a certificate of deposit (CD) realizes about $2,500-$2,800 of annual cash flow in today's low-interest environment. A $100,000 charitable gift annuity generates annual cash flow of about twice as much - plus the power to effect change.
To find out about how Pentera helps clients reach, educate, and motivate this powerful market, contact us at info@pentera.com, visit us at www.pentera.com, or call 317.875.0910, ext. 251.
