Women and Philantrophy Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Women and Philantrophy - Article Example Consensus III. Conclusion IV. References I. Executive Summary Coffman cites evidence from various reputable academic and media sources to support her assertions that women give more, give differently, and are reshaping the practice of philanthropy as we know it, in ways that make their giving markedly different from the way men give, and the way philanthropy has been practiced in the past. Studies from recent more recent studies corroborate Coffman's year 2000 assertions1. II. Women and Philanthropy- Report Overview The article posits that women are different from men in the way they approach and deal with philanthropy and the philanthropic activities that they support and get involved in. The differences are in the amount that they give relative to their income, the degree of participation in terms of time and on-going emotional and actual physical involvement in the charities that they support and want to support, and in the way they actually staff many of the nonprofit organizatio ns and charity groups in the country. There are gender line differences in these aspects of philanthropy and charity, in America and elsewhere, and the article posits further that as women become more significant players in American industry and the American economy in general, and as more women occupy positions of importance in many of the nonprofits and charities in the country, the role of women in philanthropy will further increase, and that in turn will change the shape and practice of philanthropy and charity in the United States and elsewhere2. The author divides the article into three parts, and supports the above assertions with citations to studies and articles from reputable institutions and sources, such as the National Foundation for Women Business Owners, consultants with knowhow about women philanthropy from results of studies from institutions such as UCLA, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, the University of Tennessee Alliance of Women Philant hropists, media outfits such as The Richmond Times Dispatch, Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, Time Magazine and PBS Television, the University of Virginia3. Women's Approach to Philanthropy The first section details women approaches to charity and how those approaches differ from men's approaches to the same. The overall results show that not only do women give a larger share of their income to charity compared to men, but also that women demand to be involved in the charities that they support, as opposed to men, who in general like to be involved, but do not demand it in the way that women do. Some representative numbers from a survey of American women in business, with a population of 400 respondents, are revealing. More than 50 percent give upwards of 25 thousand dollars to charity annually, and about a fifth give upwards of a hundred thousand dollars annually. More than half give with no consultations from others, and 86 percent make decisions relating to charity based on wh at a charity's mission is and how efficient a charity is operationally and in terms of achieving its mission. Majority want to be kept abreast with developments in the charities they support, and wish to connect with their chosen charities on an emotional level. Emotion and involvement, and a desire for changes in basic issues that matter to them. Meanwhile, statistics from studies confirm that a greater percentage of women than men give to charity,and give a greater share of their income compared to men4: In 1996, the Alliance states, 71 percent of women gave to nonprofit organizations, compared to 65 percent of men. Women also gave a larger portion of their income to philanthropy; although as a group women earned 75 percent of men's total income, women's overall contribution to charity was 93