Survey on Women Points to Their Potential as Donors and Their Need for Aid

Americans underestimate both the potential that women have to become major donors and the degree to which poor women need charitable aid, according to a new survey released by a coalition of women’s groups.

At a press conference here, the women’s groups acknowledged that it might seem contradictory to argue that women’s wealth is increasing while at the same time asserting that women need additional charity dollars. But, the groups said, research suggests that while some women are growing richer, poverty still claims far more women than men.

The new survey, supported by a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, compared people’s beliefs about women’s finances and philanthropy with the facts uncovered by previous studies. It found that more than two-thirds of men and women believe that men control more wealth than women. But, a summary of the survey results noted, that perception runs counter to federal data on consumer finances, which show that women control more than half, or 51.3 per cent, of the privately held wealth in the United States.

“By sharing this information, we hope to revolutionize thinking about women as donors,” said Peg Talburtt, executive director of the Michigan Women’s Foundation, one of the organizations that presented the survey findings. “There are misperceptions about what women have.”

Americans’ beliefs about the finances and philanthropy of women were assessed by Celinda Lake of Lake Sosin Snell Perry & Associates, a Washington public-opinion research firm, and Linda DiVall of American Viewpoint, another research firm, in Alexandria, Va. The two pollsters surveyed a nationally representative group of 1,000 registered voters in January.

The poll found that the overwhelming majority of respondents, both male and female, do not believe that women need an increase in charitable contributions earmarked especially for them.

When asked which one of 11 different groups of people should receive more services from charitable donations, only 3 per cent of the respondents said that women should benefit more from charitable contributions than they do now. (Previous studies have found that programs designed to benefit females receive less than 6 per cent of grants distributed by foundations.)

Twenty-five per cent of the respondents said that children should receive more in charitable services, while an additional 21 per cent said the poor should benefit more from donations to charities.

What respondents appeared to be unaware of, the pollsters said, is that a majority of the poor are female. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office of Women’s Health, two-thirds of adults below the poverty line are women. Another study found that women aged 46 to 64 are twice as likely as their male counterparts to lack health insurance.

“There is a disconnect of knowledge in the general public about who makes up the poor in this country,” said Chris Kwak, a program director at the Kellogg Foundation. The Battle Creek, Mich., fund gave $130,000 to pay for the new poll and to air the survey results on To the Contrary, a national public-television program on which all-female expert panels discuss news issues.

The new poll is part of an effort begun by Kellogg two years ago to support five women’s groups that work to get women to recognize their philanthropic potential and to increase giving to programs designed to benefit women and girls.

The groups are the Women’s Funding Network, in St. Paul; the Michigan Women’s Foundation, in Livonia; Resourceful Women, in San Francisco; the Global Fund for Women, in Palo Alto, Cal.; and Women & Philanthropy, in Washington.

Despite the fact that women are represented disproportionately among the neediest, noted Ms. Talburtt of the Michigan Women’s Foundation, other women are amassing significant wealth and have the means to help less fortunate women and girls.

The National Foundation for Women Business Owners, for example, has found that from 1987 to 1999, the number of woman-owned businesses nationwide grew by 103 per cent. Today, there are 9.1 million companies owned by women, and they generate annual sales of $3.6-trillion.

Carol Mollner, who heads the Women’s Funding Network, pointed to a study conducted by her organization, which represents more than 70 funds that raise money from women and distribute the donations to causes that benefit females. The study, which looked at the assets held by 28 of those funds, found that from 1994 to 1997, the funds’ net assets grew from $40-million to $72.9-million, an increase of 82 per cent.

“There are misperceptions on both sides of the equation,” said Ms. Talburtt. “Women have more than is commonly believed, but they also need more than is commonly believed.”

To obtain a free summary of the research results, send an e-mail message that includes a fax number to bonnieerbe@compuserve.com or check the Public Broadcasting Service’s World-Wide Web site at http://www.pbs.org/ttc/hottopics/philanthropy.html.